Definition
Plain language
A plain-text way of storing a table, with one row per line and values separated by commas, that spreadsheets can open.
As stated in the literature
Comma-Separated Values — a simple tabular text format; appears in computer-use and tool benchmarks as a target output format, notably the CSV-versus-JSON case where agents default to JSON when asked for spreadsheet-suitable output.
Why it matters: It is a simple, universal way to move tables of data between programs like spreadsheets and databases that might otherwise not understand each other.
For example, a contact list saved as a CSV file might read 'Jane,Smith,jane@example.com' on one line and another person's details on the next.
Heard on the show
“Something like, "By the way, I should have mentioned: the target format is CSV, not JSON.”Episode 035 — Why Frontier Agents Ask for Clarification at Exactly the Wrong Moment