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Modern TUI Baseline

Expected by modern TUI frameworks

Features that modern TUI frameworks (Silvery, Ink, Textual, Bubbletea) depend on for a good user experience. Includes truecolor (24-bit RGB), bracketed paste mode, focus reporting, mouse tracking (SGR mode), synchronized output to prevent flicker, application cursor keys, and origin mode. Most terminals released after 2018 support all Modern features.

47 features in this baseline

Analysis2026-03-26

5 of 8 tested terminals achieve 100% Modern TUI compliance. Lagging: Kitty (96%), Terminal.app (96%), Warp (98%). Most commonly missing: Mode Reporting (DECRPM), Origin mode (DECOM).

Compliance Scorecard

Terminal Applications

iTerm2

100%47 / 47

Ghostty

100%47 / 47

VS Code

100%47 / 47

Warp

98%46 / 47

Cursor

100%47 / 47

Kitty

96%45 / 47

Terminal.app

96%45 / 47

Headless Backends

vterm

100%47 / 47

Alacritty

96%45 / 47

WezTerm

96%45 / 47

vt100

77%36 / 47

Guidance

For Developers

If you're building with a modern TUI framework, target Modern baseline. Users with non-compliant terminals will see degraded UX (no mouse, no paste protection, possible flicker) but the app will still function.

For Terminal Authors

Modern compliance is expected by the TUI ecosystem. Missing features here will generate bug reports from users of popular terminal applications.

Features

Terminal Applications

Feature	iTerm2	Ghostty	VS Code	Warp	Cursor	Kitty	Terminal.app
Double underline (SGR 21)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Curly underline (SGR 4:3)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Dotted underline (SGR 4:4)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Dashed underline (SGR 4:5)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Underline color (SGR 58)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Blink (SGR 5)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Overline (SGR 53)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Bright fg colors (SGR 90-97)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Bright bg colors (SGR 100-107)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
256-color fg (SGR 38;5)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
256-color bg (SGR 48;5)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
24-bit fg (SGR 38;2)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
24-bit bg (SGR 48;2)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Cursor shape (DECSCUSR)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Cursor horizontal absolute (CHA)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Cursor next line (CNL)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Cursor position report (DSR 6)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Insert characters (ICH)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Delete characters (DCH)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Insert lines (IL)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Delete lines (DL)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Repeat character (REP)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
modifyOtherKeys	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
CSI u Key Encoding	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
X10 Mouse Tracking (9)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Button-Event Mouse (1002)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Bracketed paste (DECSET 2004)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Synchronized output (DECSET 2026)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mouse tracking (DECSET 1000)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
SGR mouse mode (DECSET 1006)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
All motion mouse (DECSET 1003)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Focus tracking (DECSET 1004)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Origin mode (DECOM)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗
Insert/replace mode (IRM)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
App cursor keys (DECCKM)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Application keypad (DECKPAM)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Window title (OSC 2)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Icon and title (OSC 0)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Clipboard access (OSC 52)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Foreground color query (OSC 10)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Background color query (OSC 11)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Current directory (OSC 7)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
24-bit truecolor	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Primary device attributes (DA1)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Device status report (DSR 5)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Secondary Device Attributes (DA2)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mode Reporting (DECRPM)	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✗

Headless Backends

Parser correctness tested via Termless. A ✓ means the parser accepts the sequence, not that it renders correctly.

Feature	vterm	Alacritty	WezTerm	vt100
Double underline (SGR 21)	✓	~	✓	✓
Curly underline (SGR 4:3)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Dotted underline (SGR 4:4)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Dashed underline (SGR 4:5)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Underline color (SGR 58)	✓	~	~	✗
Blink (SGR 5)	✓	~	~	✗
Overline (SGR 53)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Bright fg colors (SGR 90-97)	✓	✓	~	✓
Bright bg colors (SGR 100-107)	✓	✓	~	✓
256-color fg (SGR 38;5)	✓	✓	~	✓
256-color bg (SGR 48;5)	✓	✓	~	✓
24-bit fg (SGR 38;2)	✓	✓	✓	✓
24-bit bg (SGR 48;2)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Cursor shape (DECSCUSR)	✓	✓	✓	✗
Cursor horizontal absolute (CHA)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Cursor next line (CNL)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Cursor position report (DSR 6)	~	~	~	✗
Insert characters (ICH)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Delete characters (DCH)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Insert lines (IL)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Delete lines (DL)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Repeat character (REP)	✓	✓	✓	✗
modifyOtherKeys	✓	✓	✓	✓
CSI u Key Encoding	✓	✓	✓	✓
X10 Mouse Tracking (9)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Button-Event Mouse (1002)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Bracketed paste (DECSET 2004)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Synchronized output (DECSET 2026)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Mouse tracking (DECSET 1000)	✓	✓	✓	✓
SGR mouse mode (DECSET 1006)	✓	✓	✓	✓
All motion mouse (DECSET 1003)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Focus tracking (DECSET 1004)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Origin mode (DECOM)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Insert/replace mode (IRM)	✓	✓	✓	✗
App cursor keys (DECCKM)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Application keypad (DECKPAM)	~	✓	~	✗
Window title (OSC 2)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Icon and title (OSC 0)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Clipboard access (OSC 52)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Foreground color query (OSC 10)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Background color query (OSC 11)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Current directory (OSC 7)	✓	✓	✓	✓
24-bit truecolor	✓	✓	✓	✓
Primary device attributes (DA1)	~	~	~	✗
Device status report (DSR 5)	~	~	~	✗
Secondary Device Attributes (DA2)	✓	✗	✗	✗
Mode Reporting (DECRPM)	✓	✗	✗	✗

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