The paper proposes a hierarchical framework for distilling large language model agents, distinguishing between the policy that generates interaction histories and the policy that produces token prefixes for actions. It explores various combinations of teacher-generated and student-generated data across multiple models and environments, finding that pairing student-induced histories with teacher-generated action prefixes yields the strongest training signal, while fully on-policy data is only beneficial when mixed with other configurations. The study also shows that the specific pairing of teacher and student proportions at each level significantly impacts performance, and that strategically front-loading teacher-generated contexts and delaying on-policy contexts improves results.
By Ya Gao, Zhengtao Zou, Pekka Marttinen
arXiv:2609.37522v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: On-policy distillation (OPD) trains compact language agents with teacher feedback on student-generated trajectories. In multi-turn tasks, compounding e...
By Xiaohan Yi, Wen Luo, Yani Huang, Junfeng Zhan, Asher Qin, Peilin Zhao, Xi Xiao
The paper introduces Agent Distillation, a framework for transferring task‑solving knowledge from a teacher agent to a student agent. It categorizes where this knowledge is retained—within the model, as artifacts, through the execution harness, or across substrates—distinguishing transfer evidence from outcomes. An evaluation framework is proposed to link retention to causal contribution and practical utility, aiming to support reliable, maintainable, and safe agent development.
By Ziluowen Luo, Senzhang Wang, Chaozhuo Li, Jun Yin, Hao Yan, Ming Cheng, Chenxu Wang, Songyang Liu, Litian Zhang, Qiwei Ye, Zheng Liu, Philip S. Yu
The paper introduces Harness-Aware Distillation (HAD), a method for training smaller language model agents that preserves the surrounding harness—software managing context, tools, and feedback—while focusing distillation on the teacher’s contributions beyond the harness. HAD combines an action preference that contrasts teacher actions with and without harness information, and a validity check that filters out contradictory preference pairs. Experiments on long-horizon agent benchmarks show that HAD outperforms standard on‑policy distillation, reducing unproductive loops and improving error recovery without requiring task rewards or future information.
By Moonseok Choi, Taehong Moon, Giung Nam, Juho Lee
arXiv:2609.36608v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: On-policy distillation (OPD) trains multi-turn language agents with dense teacher supervision on student-generated responses. However, standard think-t...
By Zubin Zheng, Jiahao Wu, Shaofeng Zhang, Zhirui Zhang, Yew-Soon Ong, Shengcai Liu
arXiv:2608. 01953v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: On-policy distillation (OPD) provides teacher supervision on states visited by the student, reducing the distribution gap between training and inference.
By Chishui Chen, Yaoyou Fan, Te Sun, Yi Yang, Chenghao Sun, Delin Mao, Hongbo Qiao, Zuowei Zhang, Junxi Wang, Chenxing Sun, Yangen Hu, Lu Pan, Xuyang Liu, Linfeng Zhang