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205 Reset Content

The request succeeded and the client should reset the document view that sent it, typically clearing a form.

Status

HTTP/1.1 205 Reset Content

Details

  • Category: 2xx
  • Status: Standard. Registered with IANA and defined by a current standards-track RFC.
  • Specification: RFC 9110 §15.3.6
  • Cacheable: Only with explicit cache headers
  • Response body: Must not be sent
  • Retry: Not applicable

205 is 204 with an instruction attached: succeed, and clear the input that produced the request so the user can enter another entry. It was designed for data-entry workflows where the same form is submitted repeatedly.

Browser support for the reset behavior is inconsistent and almost all modern applications clear forms in JavaScript instead, so the code is seldom used. Like 204 it must not carry a body.

Common causes

  • A data-entry endpoint acknowledged a submission and expects another one.
  • Legacy intranet software written when the reset semantics were still relied on.

Usage notes

For clients

  • Handle it as success. If you rely on the reset behavior, do it explicitly in code rather than trusting the user agent.

For servers

  • Prefer 204, or 200 with an explicit instruction in the payload, unless you specifically need the legacy semantics.
  • Send no body, exactly as with 204.

Examples

Submitting a data-entry form

HTTP request

POST /entry/submit HTTP/1.1
Host: intranet.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

sample_id=A-1183&value=42

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 205 Reset Content

Specifications

See also