Tool-Using Agents

Follow this topic Ask about this topic

Momentum

31 papers in the last four weeks, up 210% on the four weeks before. 0.3% of all new papers.

Jul 13Week of Sep 28

Latest papers 199

All topics

Reasoning effort, not tool access, buys first-try reliability in agentic code generation: an observational study
Jul 2, 2026Achint MehtaAI Agent Reliability Test-Time Scaling
TrendAI
When Should Service Agents Reconsider? Difficulty-Routed Control in Customer-Service Operations
Jul 1, 2026Qian Chen, Chengyuan Liu, Xin YuCustomer Support Automation Tool-Using Agents
†Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems · ‡Department of Statistics The Pennsylvania State University
Can Agents Generalize to the Open World? Unveiling the Fragility of Static Training in Tool Use
Jul 1, 2026Song-Lin Lv, Weiming Wu, Rui Zhu +2Fine-Tuning Distribution Shift
School of Intelligence Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China · National Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Entity Binding Failures in Tool-Augmented Agents
Jun 29, 2026Rahul Suresh Babu, Shashank IndukuriTool-Using Agents LLM Agent Safety
Independent Researcher United States of America
How Do Tool-Augmented LLM Agents Perform on Real-World Energy Analytics Tasks?
Jun 24, 2026David Akinpelu, Akintonde Abbas, Rereloluwa Alimi +1LLM Agent Evaluation AI Agent Benchmarks
Independent Researcher · Tume AI
Beyond Function Calling: Benchmarking Tool-Using Agents under Tool-Environment Unreliability
Jun 24, 2026Yang Tian, Zhengpeng Shi, Yu Zhou +1AI Agent Reliability AI Agent Benchmarks
School of AI, Shanghai Jiao Tong University1 · School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Southeast University2
SP-Mind: An Autonomous Reasoning Agent for Spatial Proteomics Analysis
Jun 23, 2026Yucheng Yuan, Yuanfeng Ji, Zhongxiao Li +1AI Agent Benchmarks Tool-Using Agents
Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, USA · Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, USA
Self-Evolution for Multi-Turn Tool-Calling Agents via Divergence-Point Preference Learning
Jun 22, 2026Jiaqiang TangTool-Using Agents Self-Improving Agents
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
Don't Blindly Trust It: How Unreliable Feedback Breaks Tool-Using LLM Agents
Jun 19, 2026Chubin Zhang, Zhenglin Wan, Xingrui Yu +5AI Agent Reliability Tool-Use Evaluation
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore · National University of Singapore, Singapore · CFAR, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore +3
AgentMeter: Evaluating Model-CLI Matching for CLI-Based Local Task-Solving Agents
Jun 19, 2026Han Chi, Jiaxin Qi, Yan Cui +2LLM Agent Evaluation AI Agent Benchmarks
Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences · Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, Chinese Academy of Sciences
LedgerAgent: Structured State for Policy-Adherent Tool-Calling Agents
Jun 18, 2026Md Nayem Uddin, Amir Saeidi, Eduardo Blanco +1Tool-Augmented Language Model Agents Customer Support Automation
♠Arizona State University · ♢University of Arizona
ToolChain-CRC: Conformal Risk Control for Agentic AI Under Retrieval and Tool-Use Drift
Jun 16, 2026Jeffery Opoku, David BanaheneAI Agent Reliability Distribution Shift
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX, USA · Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
A T-API-Compliant ReAct Agentic Loop for Optical Networks: Generic vs. Domain-Specific Tool Abstractions
Jun 16, 2026Seyed Morteza Ahmadian, Paolo Monti, Carlos NatalinoTool-Using Agents Agentic Reasoning
Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
GIST-CMTF: Goal-State Inference for Causal Minimal Tool Filtering in LLM Agents
Jun 15, 2026Rahul Suresh Babu, Rohit ShuklaClarification Question Generation Tool-Using Agents
Independent Researcher United States of America
Can Agents Infer Environment from Interaction? Evidence from Agentic Automata Learning
Jun 15, 2026Reef Menaged, Gili Lior, Shauli Ravfogel +2LLM Agent Evaluation Active Learning
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem · New York University · Google Research
An Evaluation of Data Leakage Risks in Tool-Using LLM Agents in Realistic Scenarios
Jun 15, 2026Hankyul Baek, Jaewon Noh, Sang Seo +5Data Leakage LLM Agent Evaluation
Korea AI Safety Institute · Singapore AI Safety Institute
Not All Skills Help: Measuring and Repairing Agent Knowledge
Jun 13, 2026Yixuan Wang, Yiyang Zhou, Yiming Liang +4Causal Attribution LLM Agent Skill Learning
UNC Chapel Hill · Purdue · NVIDIA
PhoneHarness: Harnessing Phone-Use Agents through Mixed GUI, CLI, and Tool Actions
Jun 12, 2026Chenxin Li, Zhengyao Fang, Zhengyang Tang +18Mobile GUI Automation Tool-Using Agents
Tencent Hunyuan · The Chinese University of Hong Kong · The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen +1
YeasierAgent: Agentic Social Sandbox as a Canvas for Intent-Driven Creation of Platform-Agnostic Symbiotic Agent-Native Applications
Jun 11, 2026Jory HeMulti-Agent Collaboration Tool-Using Agents
Yeasier AI (www.yeasier.com)
Strategic Decision Support for AI Agents
Jun 10, 2026Shayan Kiyani, Sima Noorani, George Pappas +1AI Agent Reliability Tool-Using Agents
University of Pennsylvania
Agents All the Way Down; A Methodology for Building Custom AI Agents from Substrate to Production
Jun 10, 2026Marc Alier Forment, Juanan Pereira, Francisco José García-Peñalvo +1LLM Agent Orchestration Tool-Using Agents
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain · Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain · Universidad de Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain
MedCTA: A Benchmark for Clinical Tool Agents
Jun 10, 2026Tajamul Ashraf, Hyewon Jeong, Fida Mohammad Thoker +1Agent Evaluation AI Agent Benchmarks
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia · Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
ISE: An Execution-Grounded Recipe for Multi-Turn OS-Agent Trajectories
Jun 9, 2026Siyuan Luo, Nairong Zheng, Lin Zhou +6Synthetic Data Generation Tool-Using Agents
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China · SenseTime Research
T1-Bench: Benchmarking Multi-Scenario Agents in Real-World Domains
Jun 9, 2026Genta Indra Winata, Amartya Chakraborty, Yuzhen Lin +12Customer Support Automation LLM Agent Evaluation
AI Foundations, Capital One
TabClaw: An Interactive and Self-Evolving Agent for Spreadsheet Manipulation and Table Reasoning
Jun 9, 2026Mingyue Cheng, Shuo Yu, Daoyu Wang +5Multi-Agent LLM Systems LLM Agent Skill Learning
Anything2Skill: Compiling External Knowledge into Reusable Skills for Agents
Jun 8, 2026Qianjun Pan, Yutao Yang, Junsong Li +5LLM Agent Memory LLM Agent Skill Learning
School of Computer Science and Technology, East China Normal University, Shanghai · Shanghai AI Laboratory
Context-Fractured Decomposition Attacks on Tool-Using LLM Agents: Exploiting Artifact Provenance Gaps
Jun 8, 2026Xiaofeng Lin, Yukai Yang, Daniel Guo +3Jailbreak Attacks LLM Agent Security
University of California, Los Angeles, USA · 2Computer Science and Engineering Department, Texas A&M University, USA · 3Cisco, USA +1
Projecting the Emerging Mindset of SWE Agent by Launching a Wild Code Understanding Journey
Jun 7, 2026Zhengyi Zhuo, Yan LiuSoftware Engineering Software Engineering Agents
School of Computer Science and Technology, Tongji University,Jun Shanghai, People’s Republic of China.
MemToolAgent: Leveraging Memory for Tool Using Agents Based on Environment and User Feedback
Jun 6, 2026Suleyman Armagan Er, Danilo Ribeiro, Yogesh Virkar +5Tool-Using Agents LLM Tool Use
AWS AI · University of Washington
Contract2Tool: Learning Preconditions and Effects for Reliable Tool-Augmented LLM Agents
Jun 5, 2026Rahul Suresh Babu, Laxmipriya Ganesh IyerAI Agent Reliability Tool-Use Evaluation
Independent Researcher United States of America

Jul 2, 2026, cs.SEJ/K move · Enter open · S save

Reasoning effort, not tool access, buys first-try reliability in agentic code generation: an observational study

Achint Mehta

TrendAI

AI Agent Reliability Test-Time Scaling Agentic Code Generation Tool-Using Agents Code Generation Evaluation LLM Agent Reliability

Open paper AskPDF arXiv

Agentic coding assistants are increasingly given extra capabilities, such as browser based testing tools and design oriented system prompts, on the assumption that more capability yields better software. This study tested that assumption directly. Ninety independent agent runs built the same application, a real time retrospective board, from one detailed specification, each scored on a fixed 14 criterion functional rubric (42 point maximum) and a visual quality review. The runs spanned several model generations, two agent harnesses, two reasoning effort levels, a testing tool, and two design oriented prompts. Capability tier dominated: frontier models clustered near the ceiling while a low cost local model fell to 24 to 37 points. A criterion level analysis revealed what run totals conceal. Container deployment was the dominant defect, failing first try in 44 percent of runs, with its failure rate shifting sharply across model generations while mean totals moved less than a point. The testing tool raised cost by 42 to 68 percent without improving functional score or reliability, even on interface visible criteria. Raising reasoning effort from High to xHigh lifted first try perfect runs from 28 percent to 89 percent and cut corrective prompts about five fold, for 9 to 29 percent more cost. A design oriented prompt raised visual quality, 4.5 versus 3.0 on a 5 point scale, without lifting function, and a one paragraph paraphrase of its directive reproduced the entire lift. The practical lesson is to match the fix to the failure: most first run failures came from weak reasoning, which a stronger model or more effort prevents, not from visible flaws a checking tool would catch.

Momentum

Related topics

Latest papers 199