arXiv Machine Learning

Software Engineering LLMs: Why We Need Them and How Software Engineering Helps Build Them

The paper discusses how software engineering (SE) expertise can guide the training of large language models (LLMs) for coding tasks. Using a case study of a 92‑billion‑parameter LLM, the authors created RefactorForge, a pipeline that leverages SE knowledge and tools to generate verified training data from 306 Python repositories. Fine‑tuning the model on this data improved performance on several benchmarks, including RefactorBench and SWE‑Bench ProMax, and the gains extended to other coding‑agent harnesses.

arXiv AI
Oct 12

SWE-Critix: Post-Training Generalist Verifiers for Assessing Coding-Agent Trajectories

SWE-Critix is a post‑training pipeline that creates generalist verifiers for coding‑agent trajectories. It uses supervised fine‑tuning followed by reinforcement learning to train 30B models on CodeForge‑Preview data, enabling the verifier to predict completion labels and generate natural‑language explanations. The approach raises classification accuracy from 57% to 78% on a held‑out test set.

By Jiajun Hu, Chun Yong Chong
arXiv AI
Oct 1

EngramBench: A Capability-Grounded Benchmark for Skill-Evolution Harnesses

EngramBench is a new benchmark designed to evaluate skill evolution in autonomous agents by focusing on genuine capability abstraction rather than solution copying. It includes 30 learning tasks and 13 unseen transfer tasks that require agents to manage complex, multi-hour development cycles with LLM‑simulated users. The study shows that while static skill banks cannot eliminate the need for precise code implementation, they effectively reduce redundant context and cut overall coding time by more than 55%.

By Zhixuan Tan, Pengjie Gu, Zhao Li, Yihan Hu, Xu He, Dong Li, Jianye Hao
arXiv AI
Jun 9

Lost in the Flow with Code Talkers: Unveiling the Instruction-Tuning Tax of Large Language Models in Code Tasks

arXiv:2606. 08676v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: AI coding assistants have significantly improved developer productivity by automatically suggesting code that aligns with user intent, and many of these tools are now integrated directly into Integrated Development Environments (IDEs).

By Shi Ying Chang, Chiok Yew Ho, Yichen Li, Yintong Huo
arXiv AI
Oct 31

Well-Specified and Well-Tested? Assessing SWE-bench-Style Datasets with a Self-Evolving Agent

The paper introduces ExLabel, an LLM‑based, self‑evolving assistant that assesses task clarity and test coverage in SWE‑bench‑style software engineering datasets. ExLabel builds an experience bank from cross‑instance knowledge, enabling context‑aware judgments that outperform static rubrics. A new benchmark, SWE‑TQ, spanning eight programming languages, demonstrates ExLabel’s superior F1 scores and its ability to filter data that improves a coding model’s success rate on SWE‑bench Verified.

By Zhonghao Jiang, Xuyang Zheng, Yanfu Yan, Zhongxin Liu, Lingfeng Bao, Shuiguang Deng
arXiv AI
Oct 28

Skill Dreaming: Evolving Repository Skills through Pull Request Streams

Skill Dreaming is a framework that learns from pull request (PR) streams to build and continuously refine a repository‑specific skill library. By extracting executable knowledge from validated PRs, it guides LLM agents in implementing features, maintaining tests, documentation, and repository conventions. The framework integrates PR analysis, skill management, code execution, and continuous integration to create an end‑to‑end workflow that updates skills as new PRs arrive.

By Xinyuan Song, Hasibul Haque, Jay Somasundaram, Ryan Turner, Bowen Zhu, Liang Zhao
arXiv AI
Aug 28

Exploring the Role of LLMs in HPC Programming: A Survey

The survey reviews how Large Language Models (LLMs) are being used in High‑Performance Computing (HPC) programming, covering code generation, parallelization, frameworks, evaluation, and broader challenges. It finds that general‑purpose LLMs perform adequately on serial and OpenMP‑style tasks but struggle with distributed MPI workloads, while domain‑specialized models achieve higher accuracy yet are limited in scope and evaluation. The authors argue that LLMs will not replace HPC experts soon but can act as powerful collaborators, provided richer datasets, integration with performance tools, rigorous evaluation, and governance are developed.

By Strahinja Ljaljevic, Josep Jorba, Sergio Iserte