The paper introduces EMFA, a method for attributing failures in large language model-based multi-agent systems by identifying the decisive error—an agent–step pair whose correction would restore correct execution. EMFA builds a structured representation of the failed trajectory, models error propagation and persistent loops, and applies propagation-aware screening with counterfactual verification to pinpoint the decisive error. On the Who&When benchmark, EMFA outperforms prior methods, improving step-level attribution accuracy by 3.45 and 4.40 percentage points on two subsets.
By Jiaqi Liao, Yuanzhao Zhai, Huanxi Liu, Xu Zhang, Zheming Zhuang, Dawei Feng, Bo Ding, Huaimin Wang
arXiv:2606. 00765v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: LLM-based agents increasingly solve complex tasks through long trajectories involving reasoning steps, tool calls, and inter-agent communication.
By Md Nakhla Rafi, Md Ahasanuzzaman, Dong Jae Kim, Zhijie Wang, Tse-Hsun Chen
The paper introduces DCFA, a training‑free framework for attributing failures in large language model‑based multi‑agent systems. DCFA uses a global module to build causal‑inspired dependency graphs from system traces, pinpointing the earliest decisive error, and a local module that refines this attribution through counterfactual reasoning. Experiments on the Who&When benchmark across six LLMs demonstrate that DCFA improves step‑level accuracy by up to 8.27% over existing baselines.
By Zehao Wang, Lanjun Wang, Shilong Jin, Junjie Chen, Yanghua Xiao
arXiv:2606. 03467v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: LLM-based multi-agent systems exhibit remarkable collaborative capabilities in complex multi-step tasks.
By Taiyu Zhu, Yifan Wu, Weilin Jin, Ying Li, Gang Huang
arXiv:2607. 07989v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large language model (LLM) based multi-agent systems enable complex problem solving through coordinated reasoning and action, but their distributed structure also introduces new challenges in diagnosing system-level failures.
By Yufei Xia, Anjun Gao, Yueyang Quan, Zhuqing Liu, Minghong Fang
arXiv:2608.29646v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Large language model (LLM)-based agents have shown strong potential in solving complex tasks through multi-step reasoning, yet they remain vulnerable t...
By Jiayi Zhang, Zexin Wang, Degang Sun, Changhua Pei, Fei Sun, Gaogang Xie, Jingjing Li
arXiv:2607. 12747v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Failure attribution for LLM-based agentic systems, i.
By Samuel Yeh, Yiwen Zhu, Shaleen Deep, Sharon Li
EDGE is a framework that attributes multiple related errors in multi-agent large language model systems by constructing an error dependency graph from observed error events. It validates a reliable causal subset through counterfactual rollout and uses this inference graph to guide a two-stage LLM-as-judge detector for error attribution. Experiments on TRAIL and MAST demonstrate that EDGE improves category-level multi-error attribution across most models and settings, and that the graph aids explanation and repair analysis.
By Jun Hou, Priya Pitre, Yi Fang, Xuan Wang
The paper introduces Adaptive Influence Graphs (AIGs), a two‑stage framework that first converts a failed trace into a structured graph and then navigates it to pinpoint the critical error in multi‑agent large language model systems. Experiments across multiple models demonstrate that richer trace representations and adaptive graph construction improve failure attribution, with AIGs achieving state‑of‑the‑art results on the Who&When benchmark. The study shows that both the diagnosing model and the way traces are represented and explored are crucial for accurate failure attribution.
By Yarden Bakish, Amir Dudai, Roy Ganz, Oren Nuriel, Elad Ben Avraham, Mor Shpigel Nacson, Ron Litman
arXiv:2608. 06346v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: LLM-based agentic systems have shown remarkable capabilities in complex domains, while suffering from cascading errors and difficulty in debugging.
By Yunjia Qi, Zehua Yin, Xintong Shi, Hao Peng, Songyuanyi Lu, Yixian Liu, Richeng Xuan, Yuhong Liu, Zhichao Hu, Xiaozhi Wang, Lei Hou, Bin Xu, Juanzi Li
arXiv:2608.25920v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: As large language model (LLM)-based multi-agent systems (MASs) are increasingly applied to long-horizon complex tasks, their reliability has emerge...
By Zhongwen Luan, Xiaoyu Zhang, Ming Hu, Yue Yang, Jiongchi Yu, Xiaohong Chen
arXiv:2607. 09996v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Automated failure attribution uses LLMs to identify where and why agentic systems fail.
By Jiale Liu, Huajun Xi, Shaokun Zhang, Yifan Zeng, Tianwei Yue, Chi Wang, Jian Kang, Qingyun Wu, Huazheng Wang