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Erase below (ED 0)

Category: erase · Baseline: core · Tags: ECMA-48 Standard, VT100 · Specification ↗

ESC [ 0 J
ED 0 erases from the cursor position to the end of the screen. The sequence is ESC [ 0 J or ESC [ J (parameter defaults to 0). Commonly used to clear the screen below a status bar or after repositioning content.
How this is testedautomated
Write three lines, move home, send \x1b[J (ED 0), verify line 2 content is gone.

The same probe runs against headless backends (via Termless) and real terminal apps (via a daemon launched in each terminal). This lets us distinguish parser correctness from rendering correctness.

Analysis2026-04-06

Supported by all 12 tested terminals — universal adoption. Part of the Core TUI baseline.

Supported by 13 of 14 backends (93%)

Terminal Applications

TerminalVersionSupportNotes
iTerm23.6.9✓ yes
Ghostty1.3.1✓ yes
VS Code✓ yes
Warp✓ yes
Cursor✓ yes
Terminal.app✓ yes

Headless Backends

Parser correctness only — a means the parser accepts the sequence.

BackendVersionSupportNotes
Alacritty0.26.0✓ yes
Kitty0.40.0✓ yes
vt100.js0.2.1✓ yes
vterm0.2.0✓ yes
WezTerm0.1.0-fork.5✓ yes
xterm.js5.5.0✓ yes