JSON Glossary
A plain-text data format used by APIs, tools, agents, and configuration files to pass structured information around.
JSON is a plain-text format for representing structured data: names, values, lists, objects, numbers, true/false flags, and nulls.
It matters in agentic AI because tools need a shared way to pass information around. When an agent calls a tool, reads a configuration file, sends an API request, stores heartbeat state, or receives a structured result, JSON is often the little envelope carrying the meaning. It is not glamorous, but it is everywhere.
The useful intuition is this: ordinary prose is for humans; JSON is for machinery that needs to know exactly which value belongs to which name. A misplaced comma can break the machine. A well-shaped JSON object can make a tool call precise, auditable, and repeatable.