just-in-time

Definition

Producing something at the moment of need rather than in advance. The term comes from manufacturing inventory practice and entered computing through JIT compilation, where code is translated as it runs. Applied to agents it means assembling tools or context per task instead of preloading everything: less waste, but you pay latency at the point of use and must handle failures there.

Explainers using this term

• Paper Explained: JIT-Agent — A Model That Writes the Agent Harness On DemandJIT-Agent: Scaling Harness Intelligence via Just-in-Time Harness Evolution