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Icon and title (OSC 0)

Category: extensions · Baseline: modern · Tags: Operating System Commands (OSC), Xterm Extensions · Specification ↗

ESC ] 0 ; title BEL
OSC 0 sets both the icon name and window title simultaneously. The sequence is ESC ] 0 ; title ST. In practice, the "icon name" is a legacy concept from X11 window managers — most modern terminals treat OSC 0 identically to OSC 2 (window title only).
How this is testedautomated
Send \x1b]0;My Title\x07 (OSC 0), verify getTitle() contains "My Title".

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 Modern TUI baseline.

Supported by 14 of 14 backends (100%)

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