Definition
Plain language
A clean, standardized form that messy inputs get converted into first, so everything afterward can work on one consistent format.
As stated in the literature
A normalized internal structure that source data is parsed into before analysis or transformation; in compilers, the IR between source and machine code, and in HarnessFix, a common structured form for heterogeneous agent traces.
Also called: IR
Why it matters: It lets the rest of a system work on one consistent format instead of handling every messy input differently.
For example, a tool that imports spreadsheets from many different formats might first convert all of them into one standard table before doing any analysis.
Heard on the show
“An intermediate representation.”Episode 121 — When the Agent Says It's Done But Nothing Happened: Debugging the Harness, Not the Model