---
id: "prereq-markdown-format"
type: "prereq"
source_timestamps: ["§ Information Systems", "§ Data: Make it plain text."]
tags: ["data-formats"]
related: ["action-convert-to-markdown"]
reason: "The author prescribes converting institutional knowledge specifically into markdown format to enable agent processing."
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-ext-17-workplace-set-up-for-agents"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/01/is-your-workplace-set-up-for-ai-agents"
sourceTitle: "Is Your Workplace Set Up for AI Agents?"
---
# Familiarity with Markdown

Basic knowledge of markdown — a lightweight markup language for creating formatted text using a plain-text editor.

**Why it matters:** the author prescribes converting institutional knowledge specifically into markdown to enable agent processing (see [[action-convert-to-markdown]] and [[concept-human-formatted-data]]).