Clear console/terminal in node.js the right way

index.js

const readline = require('readline')
const blank = '\n'.repeat(process.stdout.rows)
console.log(blank)
readline.cursorTo(process.stdout, 0, 0)
readline.clearScreenDown(process.stdout)

Side note on this topic: I used the solution in the gist, but I got curious about something. I checked the source code for rollup --watch since that includes an option to clear the screen. I noticed it uses '\u001Bc' (which the beginning of @jonathon-annett's snippet above). Just noting.

Another note, if you're using nodemon and want to clear the console when nodemon restarts; here is a relevant tip:

This is what the nodemon events are for. You can include either a global or local nodemon.json file as per the following to do what you're after.

As per the design principles, I'd rather re-use the current tech rather than introduce new features:

{
  "events": {
    "start": "echo \"\\x1Bc\""
  }
}

It is from this thread, which has more info about portability if you must deal with Windows.

//this also stops someone scrolling back and viewing sensitive data that may have been logged function clearConsoleAndScrollbackBuffer() { process.stdout.write("\u001b[3J\u001b[2J\u001b[1J");console.clear(); }

Worked for me, thanks @jonathan-annett !

For macOS to get the terminal to clear including scrollback I use this.

process.stdout.write('\u001Bc\u001B[3J');

It is a NodeJS compatible version of \33c\e[3J (Note: Octal escapes will throw in strict mode so they must be converted)

The sequences being used are:
ESC c - Reset to initial state
CSI 3J - Clear entire screen and delete all lines saved in the scrollback buffer

For those interested in learning the escape sequences these two resources were useful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code
https://bjh21.me.uk/all-escapes/all-escapes.txt