PipeWireSharp 0.1.0

PipeWireSharp

PipeWireSharp is a lightweight, fully-managed .NET library for low-level audio playback using PipeWire on Linux.

It provides a simple, modern C# API over PipeWire's native libpipewire-0.3.so — no extra dependencies, no managed wrappers around PulseAudio compatibility layers. Ideal for games, real-time audio apps, custom players, or experiments that want direct control and minimal latency.

Example Usage (440 Hz Sine Wave)

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using PipeWireSharp;

const int SampleRate = 44100;
const int ToneFrequency = 440;
const double Volume = 0.7;

double accumulator = 0;

Console.WriteLine($"Playing {ToneFrequency} Hz tone. Press enter to exit.");

using var context = new PipeWireContext();

using var stream = context.CreateStream(
    new PipeWireStreamOptions(
        Name: "SineWave",
        Format: BitConverter.IsLittleEndian ? SpaAudioFormat.F32_LE : SpaAudioFormat.F32_BE,
        Rate: 44100,
        Channels: 1,
        WriteData: GenerateTone
    )
);

stream.SetActive(true);

Console.ReadLine();

int GenerateTone(Span<byte> buffer)
{
    var frames = MemoryMarshal.Cast<byte, float>(buffer);

    for (int i = 0; i < frames.Length; i++)
    {
        accumulator += Math.PI * 2 * ToneFrequency / SampleRate;
        if (accumulator >= Math.PI * 2)
            accumulator -= Math.PI * 2;

        frames[i] = (float)(Math.Sin(accumulator) * Volume);
    }

    return frames.Length * sizeof(float);
}

Installation

<PackageReference Include="PipeWireSharp" Version="0.x.x" />

Requires PipeWire ≥ 0.3 installed.

Features

• Managed context with background pw_thread_loop
• Multiple simultaneous playback streams
• Simple delegate-based waveform generation
• Explicit play/pause control via SetActive(bool)
• Zero-allocation-friendly design (when used carefully)
• AOT/Trim compatible

Limitations

• Only playback (no capture/input yet)
• Fixed format (no runtime negotiation or device enumeration)
• Default sink only (no manual device selection)
• No volume/mute controls, seeking, or metadata yet
• Video not supported

Contributing

Contributions welcome — issues, PRs, or just feedback appreciated!

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

PipeWireSharp is MIT licensed and wraps PipeWire (also MIT licensed), so you can use it freely in open-source, commercial, or proprietary projects.