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Erase above (ED 1)

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

ESC [ 1 J
ED 1 erases from the beginning of the screen to the cursor position (inclusive). The sequence is ESC [ 1 J. Clears all content above and to the left of the cursor.
How this is testedautomated
Write three lines, position cursor at row 3 col 2, send \x1b[1J (ED 1), verify cell at (0,0) is blank.

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