Bracketed paste¶

Status: xterm.

Bracketed paste marks the beginning and end of pasted text so that an application can tell it apart from typing. Without it, a pasted newline executes a command, a pasted ESC starts an escape sequence, and an editor auto-indents pasted code. It is the single most widely implemented xterm extension after mouse tracking.

Syntax¶

CSI ? 2004 h    enable
CSI 200 ~       start of paste
CSI 201 ~       end of paste
CSI ? 2004 l    disable

The pasted bytes arrive between the two markers. Nothing else changes: keys pressed after the paste continue in whatever encoding was active.

Behavior¶

The emulator is responsible for making the markers unforgeable. A robust emulator removes from the paste anything that could terminate the bracket or inject a control:

the end marker CSI 201 ~ itself;
ESC and the C1 controls, or the whole escape sequence they begin;
C0 controls other than HT, LF, and CR;
optionally, LF/CR normalization to the application's preferred line ending.

What is stripped is emulator policy. An application should still treat the contents as untrusted text: a terminal that strips nothing can be made to end the bracket early with a crafted clipboard.

Applications enable the mode at startup and disable it on exit. Line editors use it to insert the paste as a single unit without executing or auto-completing; editors use it to suspend auto-indent and key bindings.

Line editor defaults¶

Editor	Default
GNU Readline (bash 5.1+)	`enable-bracketed-paste on`
zsh (5.1+)	`bracketed-paste-magic` widget bound by default
fish	Enabled
libedit	Depends on the build

A shell with bracketed paste on shows the pasted text and waits for Enter rather than executing each line.

Pitfalls¶

The end marker can be split across reads like any other sequence; buffer until it arrives, but cap the buffer.
Text pasted by a multiplexer's own paste command may or may not be bracketed depending on its -p flag.
Some applications leave ?2004 set after a crash; the shell then sees ^[[200~ around every paste until something resets it.

Probe¶

printf '\033[?2004h'; cat -v; printf '\033[?2004l'

Paste any text: it appears wrapped in ^[[200~ and ^[[201~. Paste text containing an escape character to see what the emulator strips.

Sources¶

Compatibility¶

Feature support by terminal. Imported claims have not been reverified; unknown is not unsupported.
Feature / stable ID	Alacritty	Apple Terminal	ConPTY (conhost)	Contour	DomTerm	foot	Ghostty	iTerm2	kitty	Konsole	mintty	mlterm	PuTTY	Revenant	RLogin	st	tmux	rxvt-unicode	VTE	wayst	WezTerm	Windows Terminal	xterm	xterm.js
2004 bracketed paste `dec-mode-2004-bracketed-paste`	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	Unknown	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified	SupportedImported · unverified