Add ⌘K Clear to Start for the integrated terminal

When the terminal is focused, ⌘K clears the screen and scrollback, like
Terminal.app. There's a setting to turn it off; it stays on by default.

Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>

Author: Borisserz

CodeEdit/Features/Settings/Pages/TerminalSettings/Models/TerminalSettings.swift

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ extension SettingsData {
             [
                 "Shell",
                 "Use \"Option\" key as \"Meta\"",
+                "Clear to Start with ⌘K",
                 "Use text editor font",
                 "Font",
                 "Font Size",
@@ -39,6 +40,11 @@ extension SettingsData {
         /// If true, the terminal treats the `Option` key as the `Meta` key
         var optionAsMeta: Bool = false
 
+        /// If true, pressing ⌘K while the terminal is focused clears the viewport and scrollback.
+        ///
+        /// Matches Terminal.app / VS Code "Clear to Start" behavior. Enabled by default.
+        var clearToStartOnCommandK: Bool = true
+
         /// The selected shell to use.
         var shell: TerminalShell = .system
 
@@ -68,6 +74,10 @@ extension SettingsData {
             let container = try decoder.container(keyedBy: CodingKeys.self)
             self.darkAppearance = try container.decodeIfPresent(Bool.self, forKey: .darkAppearance) ?? false
             self.optionAsMeta = try container.decodeIfPresent(Bool.self, forKey: .optionAsMeta) ?? false
+            self.clearToStartOnCommandK = try container.decodeIfPresent(
+                Bool.self,
+                forKey: .clearToStartOnCommandK
+            ) ?? true
             self.shell = try container.decodeIfPresent(TerminalShell.self, forKey: .shell) ?? .system
             self.font = try container.decodeIfPresent(TerminalFont.self, forKey: .font) ?? .init()
             self.cursorStyle = try container.decodeIfPresent(

CodeEdit/Features/Settings/Pages/TerminalSettings/TerminalSettingsView.swift

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ struct TerminalSettingsView: View {
             Section {
                 shellSelector
                 optionAsMetaToggle
+                clearToStartToggle
             }
             Section {
                 useTextEditorFontToggle
@@ -69,6 +70,11 @@ private extension TerminalSettingsView {
         Toggle("Use \"Option\" key as \"Meta\"", isOn: $settings.optionAsMeta)
     }
 
+    private var clearToStartToggle: some View {
+        Toggle("Clear to Start with ⌘K", isOn: $settings.clearToStartOnCommandK)
+            .help("When enabled, ⌘K clears the terminal viewport and scrollback buffer while the terminal is focused.")
+    }
+
     private var useTextEditorFontToggle: some View {
         Toggle("Use text editor font", isOn: $settings.useTextEditorFont)
     }

CodeEdit/Features/TerminalEmulator/Views/CETerminalView.swift

@@ -37,6 +37,32 @@ class CETerminalView: TerminalView {
         pasteboard.setString(text, forType: .string)
     }
 
+    /// Clears the visible terminal contents and the scrollback buffer.
+    ///
+    /// Equivalent to Terminal.app / VS Code "Clear to Start" (⌘K). Operates on the
+    /// emulator buffer only — nothing is sent to the shell process.
+    ///
+    /// Uses CSI sequences processed by SwiftTerm:
+    /// - `CSI H` — move cursor home
+    /// - `CSI 2 J` — erase the entire display
+    /// - `CSI 3 J` — erase saved lines (scrollback)
+    func clearToStart() {
+        feed(text: "\u{001B}[H\u{001B}[2J\u{001B}[3J")
+    }
+
+    /// Intercepts ⌘K when ``SettingsData/TerminalSettings/clearToStartOnCommandK`` is enabled.
+    override func performKeyEquivalent(with event: NSEvent) -> Bool {
+        let flags = event.modifierFlags.intersection(.deviceIndependentFlagsMask)
+        guard flags == .command,
+              event.charactersIgnoringModifiers?.lowercased() == "k",
+              Settings.shared.preferences.terminal.clearToStartOnCommandK else {
+            return super.performKeyEquivalent(with: event)
+        }
+
+        clearToStart()
+        return true
+    }
+
     override open func isAccessibilityElement() -> Bool {
         true
     }

CodeEditTests/Features/TerminalEmulator/TerminalClearToStartTests.swift

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+//
+//  TerminalClearToStartTests.swift
+//  CodeEditTests
+//
+//  Created for issue #891 — Clear To Start (⌘K) on the integrated terminal.
+//
+
+import AppKit
+import SwiftTerm
+import XCTest
+@testable import CodeEdit
+
+final class TerminalClearToStartTests: XCTestCase {
+
+    // MARK: - Settings
+
+    func testClearToStartSettingDefaultsToTrueWhenMissing() throws {
+        let json = Data("{}".utf8)
+        let settings = try JSONDecoder().decode(SettingsData.TerminalSettings.self, from: json)
+
+        XCTAssertTrue(
+            settings.clearToStartOnCommandK,
+            "⌘K clear should be enabled by default to match Terminal.app / VS Code"
+        )
+    }
+
+    func testClearToStartSettingDecodesFalse() throws {
+        let json = Data(#"{"clearToStartOnCommandK":false}"#.utf8)
+        let settings = try JSONDecoder().decode(SettingsData.TerminalSettings.self, from: json)
+
+        XCTAssertFalse(settings.clearToStartOnCommandK)
+    }
+
+    func testClearToStartSettingIsSearchable() {
+        let settings = SettingsData.TerminalSettings()
+        let keys = settings.searchKeys.map { $0.lowercased() }
+
+        XCTAssertTrue(
+            keys.contains(where: { $0.contains("clear to start") }),
+            "Expected a searchable label for Clear to Start / ⌘K, got: \(settings.searchKeys)"
+        )
+    }
+
+    // MARK: - Clear behavior
+
+    @MainActor
+    func testClearToStartRemovesViewportAndScrollback() {
+        let terminalView = CELocalShellTerminalView(frame: NSRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 800, height: 600))
+        let terminal = terminalView.getTerminal()
+
+        // Produce more lines than the viewport so scrollback is non-empty.
+        for index in 0..<200 {
+            terminalView.feed(text: "line-\(index)\n")
+        }
+
+        let before = terminal.getText(
+            start: Position(col: 0, row: 0),
+            end: Position(col: max(0, terminal.cols - 1), row: max(0, terminal.buffer.yDisp + terminal.rows - 1))
+        )
+        XCTAssertTrue(before.contains("line-"), "Precondition: terminal should contain fed output")
+
+        terminalView.clearToStart()
+
+        XCTAssertEqual(terminal.buffer.x, 0, "Cursor should be at column 0")
+        XCTAssertEqual(terminal.buffer.y, 0, "Cursor should be at row 0")
+        XCTAssertEqual(terminal.buffer.yDisp, 0, "Viewport should be scrolled to the top")
+
+        let after = terminal.getText(
+            start: Position(col: 0, row: 0),
+            end: Position(col: max(0, terminal.cols - 1), row: max(0, terminal.rows - 1))
+        )
+        XCTAssertFalse(
+            after.contains("line-"),
+            "Cleared terminal should not still show previous output, got: \(after.prefix(200))"
+        )
+
+        let visibleText = terminalView.accessibilityValue() as? String ?? ""
+        XCTAssertFalse(
+            visibleText.contains("line-"),
+            "Accessibility value should also be cleared, got: \(visibleText.prefix(200))"
+        )
+    }
+}

Documentation.docc/AppPreferences/Sections/TerminalPreferencesView.md

@@ -1,5 +1,10 @@
 # ``CodeEdit/TerminalSettingsView``
 
+Configure the integrated terminal: shell, Option-as-Meta, **Clear to Start with ⌘K**, fonts, and cursor.
+
+When **Clear to Start with ⌘K** is enabled (default), pressing ⌘K while the terminal is focused
+clears both the viewport and the scrollback buffer, matching Terminal.app and VS Code.
+
 ## Topics
 
 ### Model