arXiv Computation and Language

Capability-Grounded Agentic Planning

Capability‑Grounded Agentic Planning (CGAP) is a method that transforms a natural‑language request into a deterministic PDDL model by compiling a catalog of tools, then uses a classical planner to generate an abstract plan. An LLM interprets the request as goals and, during execution, adds missing entity‑specific calls while a verifier ensures each result satisfies the original request. Experiments on ToolSandbox, ComplexFuncBench, BFCL multi‑turn, and τ²‑bench retail show CGAP can outperform standard tool‑calling agents by up to 28.9 points.

arXiv AI
Oct 19

Testing the Planning Claims of LLM-Based Agents against Formal Semantics

The paper evaluates the planning abilities of large language model (LLM) agents by comparing their performance against formal semantics defined in hidden PDDL models. Across five domains, four LLMs, six prompting strategies, and three agent architectures, the best setup solved 78% of solvable tasks offline but only 40% online, with limited recognition of unsolvable tasks and no clear benefit from more elaborate prompting. The study concludes that claims of LLM planning competence require validated action traces rather than end‑to‑end success rates.

By Oriol Miro-Lopez-Feliu, Oscar Mir\'o L\'opez-Feliu, Victor Gimenez-Abalos, Javier Vazquez-Salceda, Victor Carballo Araruna, Sergio Alvarez-Napagao
arXiv AI
Sep 3

Harness Engineering in LLM Tool Use via Agent-Native Reusable Tool Primitives

The paper introduces Tool Primitives, a design that replaces rigid API schemas with natural language interfaces for tool calling, enabling seamless inter-tool communication. It builds ToolFace, a repository of over 25,000 functions that LLMs can dynamically retrieve, and HEART, a harness engineering framework that orchestrates tool use with planning, routing, and verification. Experiments show HEART outperforms fine‑tuned models and leading commercial LLMs while cutting API costs by up to 85%.

By Haibo Jin, Suijin Wang, Xucheng Yu, Haojing Luo, Haohan Wang
arXiv AI
Sep 10

PlannerForge: LLM Agents for Scenario-Based Testing of Motion Planners in Autonomous Driving

PlannerForge is a unified LLM‑agent framework that covers the entire scenario‑based testing pipeline for autonomous driving systems, from scenario generation to ADS assessment, and adds ADS enhancement and benchmarking stages. It was evaluated with ten off‑the‑shelf LLMs across all tasks and five prompt conditions, achieving best‑per‑task scores between 0.88 and 1.00 and matching commercial APIs with open‑source models such as Qwen3.6:35B. The end‑to‑end chaining retains 83% of seed queries for commercial backends and 78% for open‑source, outperforming existing tools like Scenario Factory 2.0 and BM25 in natural‑language generation, attribute realization, and physically valid edits. whyItMatters":"PlannerForge demonstrates that a single LLM‑based system can streamline and improve the fragmented scenario‑based testing workflow for autonomous driving, achieving high performance without domain‑specific fine‑tuning."

By Yuan Gao, Sebastian M\"uller, Mattia Piccinini, Marc Kaufeld, Yuchen Zhang, Finn Rasmus Sch\"afer, Qunying Song, Johannes Betz
arXiv AI
Sep 18

Architectural Design, Not Only Model Intelligence, Governs Multi-Agent LLM Performance

The paper argues that the architecture of multi‑agent large language model (LLM) frameworks, rather than just the intelligence of the underlying models, largely determines system performance. It introduces a taxonomy of architectural dimensions—such as orchestration, memory, planning interfaces, specialization, and communication topology—and presents MAFBench, a unified evaluation suite. An empirical study across nine frameworks, keeping the LLM constant, reveals six design principles and shows that choices like orchestration and communication topology can dramatically affect latency, accuracy, and coordination success.

By Abdelghny Orogat, Ana Rostam, Essam Mansour
arXiv AI
Sep 3

CivBench: A Long-Horizon Benchmark for Tool-Mediated Agents in Civilization VI

CivBench is an open‑source benchmark that evaluates language‑model agents in the long‑horizon, tool‑mediated game Civilization VI using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Each episode lasts over 300 turns, generating thousands of tool calls across a 76‑tool action space, and includes a narration layer that translates visual game state into structured text. The study characterises agent behaviour across four model families, introducing Proactive Monitoring Rate (PMR) and RAG@10 as interface‑level metrics, and finds that agents often under‑monitor strategic state and fail to execute near‑term commitments despite tool access and explicit guidance.

By Austin Tudor David Andrews, Liam Wilkinson, Jamie Heagerty, Harry Coppock, Jakob Nicolaus Foerster, Rui Ponte Costa
arXiv AI
Jun 17

Blueprint First, Model Second: A Framework for Deterministic LLM Workflow

arXiv:2508. 02721v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: While powerful, the inherent non-determinism of large language model (LLM) agents limits their application in structured operational environments where procedural fidelity and predictable execution are strict requirements.

By Libin Qiu, Yuhang Ye, Zhirong Gao, Xide Zou, Junfu Chen, Ziming Gui, Weizhi Huang, Xiaobo Xue, Wenkai Qiu, Kun Zhao
arXiv AI
Sep 25

GRASP: Generating, Revising, and Assessing for Strategic Planning with Agentic AI

GRASP is a multi-stage planning framework that improves the reliability of large language models on complex tasks. It separates planning into three specialized modules—GenPlan for global macro-guidelines, RevPlan for exploring localized strategies, and VerPlan for multi-criteria evaluation—allowing context isolation and strict macro-regularization. Experiments show GRASP outperforms direct LLM planners by significant margins on datasets such as Natural Plan Calendar Scheduling, ZebraLogic, and SciBench Math, and it mitigates performance collapse in multi-task and dual-task settings.

By Arunabh Srivastava (Amir), Mohammad A. (Amir), Khojastepour, Srimat Chakradhar, Sennur Ulukus