border-beam-react

Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection.

border-beam is a lightweight React component that renders an animated traveling glow/beam effect around any element — cards, buttons, inputs, search bars, or any container. It uses CSS @property for GPU-accelerated animations with no runtime animation libraries required.

Installation

npm install border-beam

Requirements:

• React 18+
• Modern browser: Chrome 85+, Safari 15.4+, Firefox 128+

Basic Usage

import { BorderBeam } from 'border-beam';

function App() {
  return (
    <BorderBeam>
      <div style={{ padding: 32, borderRadius: 16, background: '#1d1d1d' }}>
        Your content here
      </div>
    </BorderBeam>
  );
}

BorderBeam wraps your content and auto-detects the border-radius of the first child element. All effect layers use pointer-events: none so they never block interaction.

Size Presets

// Full border glow (default) — for cards, panels
<BorderBeam size="md">
  <Card />
</BorderBeam>

// Compact glow — for small elements like icon buttons
<BorderBeam size="sm">
  <IconButton />
</BorderBeam>

// Bottom-only traveling glow — ideal for search bars, inputs
<BorderBeam size="line">
  <SearchBar />
</BorderBeam>

Color Variants

<BorderBeam colorVariant="colorful" /> {/* Rainbow spectrum (default), animates hue */}
<BorderBeam colorVariant="mono" />     {/* Grayscale, no hue animation */}
<BorderBeam colorVariant="ocean" />    {/* Blue-purple tones */}
<BorderBeam colorVariant="sunset" />   {/* Orange-yellow-red tones */}

All variants except mono animate through a hue-shift cycle by default.

Theme (Dark / Light / Auto)

<BorderBeam theme="dark" />  {/* Default — for dark backgrounds */}
<BorderBeam theme="light" /> {/* For light backgrounds */}
<BorderBeam theme="auto" />  {/* Detects system prefers-color-scheme */}

Controlling Intensity

// strength: 0 (invisible) to 1 (full, default) — only affects beam layers
<BorderBeam strength={0.6}>
  <Card />
</BorderBeam>

// brightness and saturation multipliers
<BorderBeam brightness={1.5} saturation={1.4}>
  <Card />
</BorderBeam>

Play / Pause with Callbacks

import { useState } from 'react';
import { BorderBeam } from 'border-beam';

function AnimatedCard() {
  const [active, setActive] = useState(true);

  return (
    <>
      <BorderBeam
        active={active}
        onActivate={() => console.log('Beam faded in')}
        onDeactivate={() => console.log('Beam faded out')}
      >
        <div style={{ padding: 32, borderRadius: 16, background: '#111' }}>
          Hover-activated beam
        </div>
      </BorderBeam>
      <button onClick={() => setActive(a => !a)}>Toggle Beam</button>
    </>
  );
}

Custom Duration and Hue Range

<BorderBeam
  duration={3.5}      // Animation cycle in seconds (default: 1.96 for md, 2.4 for line)
  hueRange={60}       // Hue rotation range in degrees (default: 30)
  staticColors={true} // Disable hue-shift entirely
>
  <Card />
</BorderBeam>

Custom Border Radius

If auto-detection doesn't work (e.g., the radius is set via a CSS class), override it:

<BorderBeam borderRadius={24}>
  <div className="my-card">Content</div>
</BorderBeam>

Forwarded HTML Attributes

The wrapper <div> forwards all standard HTMLDivElement attributes:

<BorderBeam
  className="my-wrapper"
  style={{ display: 'inline-block' }}
  data-testid="beam-card"
>
  <Card />
</BorderBeam>

Common Patterns

Hover-activated beam

import { useState } from 'react';
import { BorderBeam } from 'border-beam';

function HoverCard() {
  const [hovered, setHovered] = useState(false);

  return (
    <BorderBeam active={hovered} strength={0.85} colorVariant="ocean">
      <div
        onMouseEnter={() => setHovered(true)}
        onMouseLeave={() => setHovered(false)}
        style={{ padding: 24, borderRadius: 12, background: '#0f0f0f' }}
      >
        Hover me
      </div>
    </BorderBeam>
  );
}

Search bar with line beam

import { BorderBeam } from 'border-beam';

function SearchInput() {
  return (
    <BorderBeam size="line" colorVariant="sunset" theme="dark">
      <input
        type="text"
        placeholder="Search..."
        style={{
          padding: '12px 16px',
          borderRadius: 8,
          background: '#1a1a1a',
          border: '1px solid #333',
          color: '#fff',
          width: 320,
        }}
      />
    </BorderBeam>
  );
}

Light theme card

import { BorderBeam } from 'border-beam';

function LightCard() {
  return (
    <BorderBeam theme="light" colorVariant="colorful" strength={0.8}>
      <div style={{ padding: 32, borderRadius: 16, background: '#f5f5f5' }}>
        Light mode card
      </div>
    </BorderBeam>
  );
}

Reduced motion accessibility

The component itself does not automatically respond to prefers-reduced-motion. Handle it in the consumer:

import { useReducedMotion } from 'framer-motion'; // or your own hook
import { BorderBeam } from 'border-beam';

function AccessibleCard() {
  const reduceMotion = window.matchMedia('(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)').matches;

  return (
    <BorderBeam active={!reduceMotion}>
      <Card />
    </BorderBeam>
  );
}

Full Props Reference

How It Works

BorderBeam renders a wrapper <div> with three effect layers — all pointer-events: none, absolutely positioned, never affecting layout or interaction:

• ::after — beam stroke (conic gradient masked to the border edge)
• ::before — inner glow layer
• [data-beam-bloom] — outer bloom/glow child <div>

Animations use CSS @property for smooth, GPU-accelerated hue cycling.

Troubleshooting

Beam not visible:

• Ensure the child element has a visible background and border-radius
• Check strength is not 0
• Verify active is true

Border radius not matching:

• Pass borderRadius prop explicitly if the radius comes from a CSS class rather than inline style

Effect covers content / blocks clicks:

• All layers are pointer-events: none by default — if this is happening, check for CSS conflicts in your wrapper

Animation not working in browser:

• Requires CSS @property support: Chrome 85+, Safari 15.4+, Firefox 128+. Check caniuse.com/@property

SSR / Next.js:

• The component uses DOM APIs for border-radius detection; wrap in a client component ('use client') in Next.js App Router