The paper introduces a self‑evolving harness framework where a frozen language‑model agent first solves tasks and then edits its own harness based on run records. Using a 49‑line seed harness, the evolved harness improves average scores on in‑distribution benchmarks by 4.48 points and on out‑of‑distribution benchmarks by 12.64 points, surpassing Codex on the former and matching it on the latter. Continued evolution on a specific out‑of‑distribution benchmark further raises performance, and the study analyzes emergent mechanisms such as output truncation and history compaction.
By Qiankai Xu
Rep2Skill introduces a representation-guided framework that enables large language model agents to self-evolve their textual skills by analyzing internal representation trajectories from agent rollouts. The method identifies execution turns that deviate from successful dynamics and uses these signals, together with execution contexts, as actionable feedback for targeted skill revision. Experiments with two open-source LLMs across two agent environments demonstrate that Rep2Skill consistently outperforms purely text-based approaches, showing that incorporating internal representations can enhance agent self-improvement.
By Kaixing Zhang, Changming Li, Yingdong Shi, Zheng Zhang, Kaitao Song, Wenjie Shi, Jingang Wang, Kan Ren
The paper introduces ScholarEvolve, a framework that evolves the software harness of language agents by automatically incorporating insights from recent research papers. It organizes harness improvements into functional modules, uses topic modeling to identify distinct strategies, and evaluates combinations to boost task performance. Experiments show significant gains on AppWorld and Tau2-Bench, raising Qwen3.5-27B completion rates from 49.6% to 63.6% and GPT-5.4-mini pass@1 from 72.7% to 81.9%.
By Jingbo Yang, Kwei-Herng Lai, Xiaowen Wang, Yaar Harari, Evgeniy Gabrilovich, Shiyu Chang
arXiv:2606. 07412v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: LLM-driven software engineering agents have become a central testbed for real-world language-model capability, yet their training remains limited by the availability of high-quality SWE tasks.
By Chuan Xiao, Zhengbo Jiao, Shaobo Wang, Wei Wang, Bing Zhao, Hu Wei, Linfeng Zhang, Lin Qu
arXiv:2606. 03841v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Recent progress in Large Language Model (LLM) agents has enabled promising advances in automated data science.
By Zherui Yang, Fan Liu, Yansong Ning, Hao Liu
arXiv:2608. 03874v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Modern agent frameworks equip large language models with external skill libraries to solve complex tasks.
By Tianyi Guan, Yiding Wang, Haotong Yang, Siyuan Cao, Shirui Liu, Yi Hu, Jiaqi Li, Muhan Zhang
Modern agent frameworks equip large language models with external skill libraries to solve complex tasks. However, it remains unclear whether these systems can effectively evolve their skills and whether the resulting skills improve task-solving capabilities.
arXiv:2607. 26722v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Harness plays a critical role in large language model agent performance, and building a high-performing harness requires substantial expert effort.
By Hanghui Guo, Weijie Shi, Zhangze Chen, Shengxiang Xu, Yishu Wang, Yimei Zhang, Wangze Ni, Jia Zhu, Shimin Di
arXiv:2512. 18552v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: While current software agents powered by large language models (LLMs) and agentic reinforcement learning (RL) can boost programmer productivity, their training data (e.
By Yuxiang Wei, Zhiqing Sun, Emily McMilin, Jonas Gehring, David Zhang, Gabriel Synnaeve, Daniel Fried, Lingming Zhang, Sida Wang
Agent self-evolution in long-horizon LLM systems is largely procedural: useful experience is not merely stored information, but reusable procedures for searching, debugging, and verification. Yet current evaluations do not isolate this form of transfer.
Experience-driven self-evolution is critical for large language model (LLM) agents to improve through open-world interaction. However, existing experience learning methods mostly rely on single-agent loops, where the same agent executes tasks, summarizes outcomes, and determines memory content.
arXiv:2609.04280v2 Announce Type: replace-cross
Abstract: Modern LLM-based agents operate through a harness of tools, reusable skills, and specialist agents that shapes what they observe and what the...
By Zixuan Ke, Vaidehi Patil, Haizhou Shi, Yang Li, Ye Liu, Sarath Shekkizhar, Anurag Koul, Jiayu Wang, Xuan Phi Nguyen, Semih Yavuz, Mohit Bansal, Shafiq Joty