beer-protocols

The terminal-protocol building blocks beer is built on: byte codecs, the terminfo capability table, character-set translation, SGR parsing, and the keyboard/mouse wire encoders. Everything here is a pure function or a plain data type, with no terminal state, so each protocol detail can be read and tested on its own. beer feeds these into its vte-driven dispatcher and its grid model.

This README doubles as the reference for which escape sequences, OSC commands, and POSIX behaviours beer actually implements - the parts a user notices. Sequences not listed here are parsed and ignored rather than passed through. Notation: ESC is 0x1b, CSI is ESC [, OSC is ESC ], DCS is ESC P, ST is the string terminator ESC \ (a BEL is also accepted to end an OSC). Ps is a numeric parameter, Pt a text parameter.

Crate layout

Module	What it covers
codec	base64 (OSC 52), hex (XTGETTCAP names), file:// URI percent-decoding (OSC 7)
caps	terminfo capabilities answered over XTGETTCAP
charset	G0/G1 designation and DEC special-graphics line drawing
sgr	the multi-parameter SGR colour and underline forms
key	legacy xterm/VT and kitty keyboard-protocol key encoding
mouse	X10 / UTF-8 / SGR mouse-report encoding
style	the enums an SGR/DECSET stream selects

C0 control characters

Byte	Name	Effect
0x07	BEL	rings the bell (visual flash / command / urgency, per config)
0x08	BS	backspace
0x09	HT	tab to next stop
0x0A-0x0C	LF/VT/FF	line feed
0x0D	CR	carriage return
0x0E	SO	invoke G1 (shift out)
0x0F	SI	invoke G0 (shift in)

Cursor movement and editing (CSI)

Sequence	Name	Effect
CSI Ps A	CUU	cursor up
CSI Ps B / CSI Ps e	CUD	cursor down
CSI Ps C / CSI Ps a	CUF	cursor forward
CSI Ps D	CUB	cursor back
CSI Ps E	CNL	cursor down, to column 1
CSI Ps F	CPL	cursor up, to column 1
CSI Ps G / `CSI Ps ``	CHA	move to column
CSI Ps d	VPA	move to row
CSI Ps ; Ps H / f	CUP/HVP	move to row;col
CSI Ps J	ED	erase in display (0 below, 1 above, 2 all)
CSI Ps K	EL	erase in line (0 right, 1 left, 2 all)
CSI Ps @	ICH	insert blank characters
CSI Ps P	DCH	delete characters
CSI Ps L	IL	insert lines
CSI Ps M	DL	delete lines
CSI Ps X	ECH	erase characters
CSI Ps S	SU	scroll up
CSI Ps T	SD	scroll down
CSI Ps ; Ps r	DECSTBM	set scroll region (top;bottom)
CSI Ps g	TBC	clear tab stop (0) or all tabs (3)
CSI s / CSI u	SCOSC/SCORC	save / restore cursor

ESC (non-CSI)

Sequence	Name	Effect
ESC D	IND	line feed
ESC M	RI	reverse index
ESC E	NEL	next line
ESC 7 / ESC 8	DECSC/DECRC	save / restore cursor
ESC H	HTS	set tab stop
ESC c	RIS	full reset
ESC ( c / ESC ) c	SCS	designate G0 / G1 charset (0 = DEC special graphics, B = ASCII)

Graphic rendition (SGR, CSI Ps m)

Bold (1), dim (2), italic (3), underline (4), blink (5/6), reverse (7), hidden (8), strike (9), and their resets (22-29). Overline (53) and its reset (55). Underline styles via 4:x and SGR 21: single, double, curly, dotted, dashed.

Colours: the 16 ANSI colours (30-37, 90-97 foreground; 40-47, 100-107 background) and default (39/49). Extended colour for foreground (38), background (48), and underline (58/59), in both the legacy semicolon form (38;5;n, 38;2;r;g;b) and the colon-subparameter form (38:5:n, 38:2:r:g:b, with an ignored colour-space id). 256-colour and 24-bit truecolor are fully supported.

Modes (DECSET/DECRST CSI [?] Ps h / l)

Mode	Name	Effect
4 (ANSI)	IRM	insert/replace
?1	DECCKM	application cursor keys
?6	DECOM	origin mode
?7	DECAWM	autowrap
?25	DECTCEM	cursor visibility
?9	-	X10 mouse reporting
?1000	-	normal mouse (press/release)
?1002	-	button-event mouse (drag)
?1003	-	any-event mouse (all motion)
?1004	-	focus in/out reporting
?1005	-	UTF-8 mouse coordinates
?1006	-	SGR mouse coordinates
?47 / ?1047	-	alternate screen
?1049	-	alternate screen + save/restore cursor
?2004	-	bracketed paste
?2026	-	synchronized output

Mode state is reportable with DECRQM (CSI [?] Ps $ p), which replies CSI [?] Ps ; state $ y (1 set, 2 reset, 0 unrecognized).

Cursor style (DECSCUSR, CSI Ps SP q)

0/1 blinking block, 2 steady block, 3 blinking underline, 4 steady underline, 5 blinking bar, 6 steady bar. The configured default applies until an application overrides it.

Device reports

Sequence	Name	Reply
CSI c	DA1	CSI ?62;22c (VT220 + ANSI colour)
CSI > c	DA2	CSI >0;276;0c
CSI = c	DA3	DCS !|00000000 ST
CSI 5 n	DSR	CSI 0n (terminal OK)
CSI 6 n	CPR	CSI row;col R (cursor position)
CSI > q	XTVERSION	DCS >|beer(version) ST
DCS + q <names> ST	XTGETTCAP	per name, DCS 1 + r name=value ST or DCS 0 + r name ST

XTGETTCAP answers TN (terminal name beer), Co/colors (256), and RGB (8/8/8, i.e. truecolor).

Window title

OSC 0 ; Pt and OSC 2 ; Pt set the title. The title stack (CSI 22 t push, CSI 23 t pop) is supported, so full-screen programs can save and restore it.

OSC commands

Command	Effect
OSC 0 / OSC 2	set window title
OSC 4 ; idx ; spec	set / query palette entry (? queries)
OSC 104 [; idx ...]	reset palette (all, or listed entries)
OSC 10 / OSC 11	set / query default foreground / background
OSC 110 / OSC 111	reset foreground / background
OSC 12 / OSC 112	set / reset cursor colour
OSC 17 / OSC 19	set / query selection background / foreground
OSC 7 ; file://host/path	report working directory (used for new windows)
OSC 8 ; params ; URI	hyperlink (empty URI ends it)
OSC 9 ; Pt	desktop notification (iTerm2 style)
OSC 777 ; notify ; title ; body	desktop notification (rxvt style)
OSC 99 ; metadata ; body	desktop notification (kitty style, single-chunk)
OSC 52 ; target ; data	clipboard set (base64) or query (?)
OSC 133 ; A/B/C/D	shell-integration prompt marks

Colour specs follow the X11 forms #rrggbb and rgb:rr/gg/bb (1-4 hex digits per channel). Colour queries reply in the rgb:rrrr/gggg/bbbb form.

Clipboard (OSC 52)

OSC 52 ; c ; <base64> sets the clipboard, ; p ; the primary selection; ; c ; ? queries. For privacy, a query is answered from the text beer itself last placed there, not the live system clipboard - so a remote program cannot read what another application copied.

Shell integration (OSC 133 / OSC 7)

Prompt marks A (prompt start), B (command start), C (output start), and D (command end) drive prompt-jumping and “pipe last command output”. OSC 7 tracks the working directory so a new window opens in the same place.

Keyboard

The legacy xterm/VT encoding covers cursor keys (with DECCKM application mode), the editing keypad (Insert/Delete/PageUp/PageDown), F1-F12, and the xterm modifier parameter (CSI 1 ; m <letter>), with Alt sending a