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macOS Terminal Support

The best-covered app-terminal platform in the current terminfo.dev dataset.

macOS has the broadest real-app probe coverage on terminfo.dev today. Cross-platform terminals are listed here when they ship a macOS build, but their scores stay tied to the source of evidence: app probe, parser probe, inherited engine, or not yet probed.

10app terminals
7app-probed here
3parser backends
0tracking gaps
Scores are shown with their evidence source. Platform-specific app probes are strongest; parser and reference scores are useful compatibility signals but do not prove full renderer, font, input, or compositor behavior on this OS.

App Terminals

TerminalScoreEvidenceNotes
Ghostty · site91%App probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.
Kitty · site86%App probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.
iTerm2 · site94%App probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.
Terminal.app · site84%App probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.
Warp · site86%App probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.
Cursor · site85%App probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.
VS Code · site88%App probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.
cmux · site91%Inherited from GhosttyUses the same underlying terminal engine; not probed separately.
Alacritty · site61%Parser probeParser/state-machine coverage only; renderer, font, input, and compositor behavior are not included.
WezTerm · site61%Parser probeParser/state-machine coverage only; renderer, font, input, and compositor behavior are not included.

Feature Coverage

Category coverage aggregates the scored entries on this platform page. It is a platform lens over available evidence, not a substitute for missing full-app probes.

CategoryPass RateSignalsStrongestWeakest
Character Sets93%52 yes / 0 partial / 56 checksAlacritty (100%)GNU Screen (0%)
Cursor83%256 yes / 5 partial / 308 checksvterm.js (100%)GNU Screen (27%)
Device Status49%121 yes / 33 partial / 246 checksvterm.js (100%)WezTerm (0%)
Editing70%166 yes / 0 partial / 238 checkscmux (94%)vt100.js (6%)
Erase90%139 yes / 0 partial / 154 checkscmux (100%)GNU Screen (27%)
Extensions74%732 yes / 13 partial / 987 checksvterm.js (100%)vt100.js (32%)
Input Protocols78%76 yes / 6 partial / 98 checkscmux (100%)vt100.js (0%)
Modes85%335 yes / 18 partial / 393 checkscmux (100%)Alacritty (54%)
Reset90%63 yes / 2 partial / 70 checkscmux (100%)vt100.js (60%)
Scrollback96%121 yes / 1 partial / 126 checksAlacritty (100%)GNU Screen (67%)
SGR (Text Styling)91%408 yes / 20 partial / 448 checkscmux (100%)vt100.js (38%)
Text75%209 yes / 0 partial / 280 checksvterm.js (100%)GNU Screen (5%)
Unicode80%45 yes / 0 partial / 56 checksAlacritty (100%)GNU Screen (0%)

Portable Parser Backends

BackendScoreEvidenceNotes
vterm.js94%Parser probeParser/state-machine coverage only; renderer, font, input, and compositor behavior are not included.
vt100.js46%Parser probeParser/state-machine coverage only; renderer, font, input, and compositor behavior are not included.
xterm.js66%Parser probeParser/state-machine coverage only; renderer, font, input, and compositor behavior are not included.

Multiplexers

MultiplexerScoreEvidenceNotes
tmux86%Multiplexer probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.
GNU Screen68%Multiplexer probe on macOSPlatform-specific full-stack probe.

Notes

  • Current real-app probe files are macOS-first, so macOS scores are the strongest platform-specific evidence in the dataset.
  • Alacritty and WezTerm are tracked as app terminals, but current automated results for them come from their reusable parser backends rather than from a macOS GUI-app probe.

Sources