The paper investigates why large‑language‑model coding agents rarely request a second chunk of tool output, focusing on the precision‑at‑1 rate ($p_1$) of the gold item appearing first in the first chunk. In a benchmark of 500 software‑engineering tasks, the authors compare six value functions and find that increasing $p_1$ does not systematically improve downstream accuracy; the agent can recover the correct answer from any position within the chunk. Adding file‑metadata signals to a keyword scorer actually reduces $p_1$, while a parameter‑free keyword scorer improves $p_1$ but still fails to boost overall accuracy.
By Tatiana Petrova, Andrei Mazniak, Radu State
arXiv:2607. 18553v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Can a language model read the quality of ongoing computation, and can an external intervention turn that readout into better outcomes?
By Jan Kirin
arXiv:2608. 04719v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Agent evaluations tell us that a model picked the wrong tool, but rarely why.
By Atul Anand, Sourav Chattaraj
Agent evaluations tell us that a model picked the wrong tool, but rarely why. We introduce canary tools: diagnostic probe tools planted in an agent's Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool set, each engineered to probe one specific tool-selection weakness.
arXiv:2605. 24660v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Before an LLM agent can use a tool, a retrieval system must decide which candidate tools to show to the agent.
By Vyzantinos Repantis, Ameya Gawde, Harshvardhan Singh, Joey Blackwell II
arXiv:2609.05736v2 Announce Type: new
Abstract: LLM tool agents can be improved without retraining by modifying the runtime harness around a fixed model: prompts, tool interfaces, middleware, state h...
By Cen Mia Zhao, Haibo Ruan, Wenjie Chen, Pei-fen Tu, Usman Abbasi, Joel Hesch