Definition
Plain language
A simple way of writing formatted text using plain characters, like asterisks for bold, instead of a word processor.
As stated in the literature
A lightweight plain-text markup syntax for formatting documents; used as the storage format for trained agent skill files (SkillOpt) and for evidence-tagged research representations that get rendered into prose (ScientistOne).
Also called: markdown
Why it matters: It is a simple, human-readable format that's easy for both people and programs to write and store, which is why it's used for agent instruction files and tagged documents.
For example, wrapping a word in asterisks like *this* makes it show up in bold without any word processor.
Heard on the show
“It has rich, persistent state — git commit history, an issue backlog, a long-term-memory markdown file.”Episode 027 — When AI Agents Build the Serving Stack: A Bet on Bespoke Infrastructure