Apple Terminal (Terminal.app)

The emulator bundled with macOS. It is closed source, updated only with the operating system, and documented for users rather than for protocol implementers.

Identity

• TERM: xterm-256color.
• TERM_PROGRAM: Apple_Terminal; TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION carries a build number (for example 453 on macOS 14), not the macOS version.
• TERM_SESSION_ID: a per-window identifier.
• DA1: CSI ? 1 ; 2 c ?.
• XTVERSION: not supported.

Documentation

• Terminal User Guide
• No escape-sequence reference is published; /usr/share/terminfo and the bundled /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal (which emits OSC 7) are the closest primary sources.

Notable behavior

• Originated OSC 7 (file:// current working directory) and OSC 6 (current document), both consumed to restore sessions and to set the proxy icon.
• 256 colors only; no 24-bit color support, so COLORTERM is not set and applications that assume truecolor from TERM_PROGRAM misrender.
• Bracketed paste, alternate screen, mouse reporting including SGR, and DECSCUSR cursor styles are supported.
• Does not implement OSC 8 hyperlinks, OSC 52, any graphics protocol, underline styles, the Kitty keyboard protocol, or synchronized output.
• Some behavior depends on the "Advanced ▸ Terminfo" declaration in the profile, which changes TERM without changing capabilities.

Version notes

Versioned with macOS; observations must record both the macOS version and TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION.

Probe

echo "$TERM_PROGRAM $TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION"
tools/query '\033[c'

Feature support

Records are maintained independently in tdn/terminals/apple-terminal.yaml. Unlisted features are unknown. See the comparison for all features.

Feature	Support	As of	Notes and evidence
BEL urgency/visual c0-bel-attention	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
DECSTBM csi-decstbm	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
ED/EL/ECH/ICH/DCH/IL/DL csi-editing-operations	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
SU/SD csi-su-sd-scroll	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
1049 alternate screen dec-mode-1049-alternate-screen	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
2004 bracketed paste dec-mode-2004-bracketed-paste	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes | Also recorded: ?; No public protocol document import import
win32-input-mode dec-mode-9001-win32-input	UnknownImported · unverified	Unversioned	?; Not a Unix protocol; not documented by any of them import
OSC 0/2 set osc-0-2-title	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
OSC 52 read osc-52-read	UnknownImported · unverified	Unversioned	?; Not implemented import
OSC 52 write osc-52-write	UnknownImported · unverified	Unversioned	?; Not implemented import
OSC 6 osc-6-apple-document	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
OSC 7 osc-7-working-directory	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
256 colors sgr-256-colors	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
Italic 3 sgr-3-italic	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
Blink 5 sgr-5-blink	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
bce terminfo-bce	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
Bold-is-bright option text-bold-is-bright	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
Color emoji rendering text-color-emoji	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
Italic face text-italic-face	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import
Ligatures / shaping text-shaping	SupportedImported · unverified	Unversioned	Yes import