mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

ChatDev: Communicative Agents for Software Development

arXiv 2307.07924 ↗First posted 16 Jul 2023cs.SE cs.CL cs.MAcited by 893

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Software engineering coding agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Software development is a complex task that necessitates cooperation among multiple members with diverse skills. Numerous studies used deep learning to improve specific phases in a waterfall model, such as design, coding, and testing. However, the deep learning model in each phase requires unique designs, leading to technical inconsistencies across various phases, which results in a fragmented and ineffective development process. In this paper, we introduce ChatDev, a chat-powered software development framework in which specialized agents driven by large language models (LLMs) are guided in what to communicate (via chat chain) and how to communicate (via communicative dehallucination). These agents actively contribute to the design, coding, and testing phases through unified language-based communication, with solutions derived from their multi-turn dialogues. We found their utilization of natural language is advantageous for system design, and communicating in programming language proves helpful in debugging. This paradigm demonstrates how linguistic communication facilitates multi-agent collaboration, establishing language as a unifying bridge for autonomous task-solving among LLM agents. The code and data are available at https://github.com/OpenBMB/ChatDev.

Key facts. Cited by 893 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Software engineering coding agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 18 of its 65 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Jul 2023.

Builds on

18 of 65 references.

References · 18

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 59,932
  2. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,199
  3. 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,712
  4. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 13,958
  5. 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,053
  6. 2020Scaling Laws for Neural Language Modelscited by 6,411
  7. 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,072
  8. 2023Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4cited by 2,579
  9. 2023Large Language Models are not Fair Evaluatorscited by 1,050
  10. 2022CodeGen: An Open Large Language Model for Code with Multi-Turn Program Synthesiscited by 876
  11. 2023Large Language Models are Effective Text Rankers with Pairwise Ranking Promptingcited by 302
  12. 2023Large Language Models as Tool Makerscited by 293
6 more
  1. 2023GPT4Tools: Teaching Large Language Model to Use Tools via Self-instructioncited by 245
  2. 2023LM vs LM: Detecting Factual Errors via Cross Examinationcited by 155
  3. 2018Improving Automatic Source Code Summarization via Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 99
  4. 2021Collaboration Challenges in Building ML-Enabled Systems: Communication, Documentation, Engineering, and Processcited by 56
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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 13; 2024: 97; 2025: 302; 2026: 481.

893 papers.

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  1. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,422
  2. 2025Why Do Multi-Agent LLM Systems Fail?cited by 559
  3. 2025Multi-Agent Collaboration Mechanisms: A Survey of LLMscited by 424
  4. 2025Towards Large Reasoning Models: A Survey of Reinforced Reasoning with Large Language Modelscited by 291
  5. 2023Large Language Models Empowered Agent-based Modeling and Simulation: A Survey and Perspectivescited by 253
  6. 2024Scaling Large Language Model-based Multi-Agent Collaborationcited by 235
  7. 2024Agent-as-a-Judge: Evaluate Agents with Agentscited by 223
  8. 2025Large Language Model Agent: A Survey on Methodology, Applications and Challengescited by 194
  9. 2024Agent S: An Open Agentic Framework that Uses Computers Like a Humancited by 182
  10. 2025AgentSociety: Large-Scale Simulation of LLM-Driven Generative Agents Advances Understanding of Human Behaviors and Societycited by 180
  11. 2024A Survey on Recent Advances in LLM-Based Multi-turn Dialogue Systemscited by 170
  12. 2025AI Agents vs. Agentic AI: A Conceptual Taxonomy, Applications and Challengescited by 167
38 more
  1. 2024LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems for Software Engineering: Literature Review, Vision and the Road Aheadcited by 155
  2. 2024AgentSquare: Automatic LLM Agent Search in Modular Design Spacecited by 141
  3. 2025OWL: Optimized Workforce Learning for General Multi-Agent Assistance in Real-World Task Automationcited by 129
  4. 2024OpenCoder: The Open Cookbook for Top-Tier Code Large Language Modelscited by 127
  5. 2024Prompt Infection: LLM-to-LLM Prompt Injection within Multi-Agent Systemscited by 126
  6. 2025Advances and Challenges in Foundation Agents: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Evolutionary, Collaborative, and Safe Systemscited by 125
  7. 2025A Survey of Context Engineering for Large Language Modelscited by 120
  8. 2025Red-Teaming LLM Multi-Agent Systems via Communication Attackscited by 118
  9. 2025A Comprehensive Survey in LLM(-Agent) Full Stack Safety: Data, Training and Deploymentcited by 110
  10. 2025Multi-Agent Collaboration via Evolving Orchestrationcited by 102
  11. 2025TRAIL: Trace Reasoning and Agentic Issue Localizationcited by 98
  12. 2024A Review of Large Language Models and Autonomous Agents in Chemistrycited by 96
  13. 2024On the Resilience of LLM-Based Multi-Agent Collaboration with Faulty Agentscited by 92
  14. 2024PersonaGym: Evaluating Persona Agents and LLMscited by 89
  15. 2023MetaAgents: Large Language Model Based Agents for Decision-Making on Teamingcited by 85
  16. 2024Flooding Spread of Manipulated Knowledge in LLM-Based Multi-Agent Communitiescited by 84
  17. 2024Proactive Agent: Shifting LLM Agents from Reactive Responses to Active Assistancecited by 84
  18. 2023Large Language Models Play StarCraft II: Benchmarks and A Chain of Summarization Approachcited by 79
  19. 2024From Individual to Society: A Survey on Social Simulation Driven by Large Language Model-based Agentscited by 76
  20. 2025Agentic AI for Scientific Discovery: A Survey of Progress, Challenges, and Future Directionscited by 74
  21. 2024Self-Evolving Multi-Agent Collaboration Networks for Software Developmentcited by 73
  22. 2023Igniting Language Intelligence: The Hitchhiker's Guide From Chain-of-Thought Reasoning to Language Agentscited by 72
  23. 2024MALT: Improving Reasoning with Multi-Agent LLM Trainingcited by 71
  24. 2025Paper2Code: Automating Code Generation from Scientific Papers in Machine Learningcited by 67
  25. 2025AgentRxiv: Towards Collaborative Autonomous Researchcited by 64
  26. 2024Many Heads Are Better Than One: Improved Scientific Idea Generation by A LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systemcited by 63
  27. 2024Navigating the Risks: A Survey of Security, Privacy, and Ethics Threats in LLM-Based Agentscited by 63
  28. 2023Unifying the Perspectives of NLP and Software Engineering: A Survey on Language Models for Codecited by 62
  29. 2024HyperAgent: Generalist Software Engineering Agents to Solve Coding Tasks at Scalecited by 61
  30. 2026Memory for Autonomous LLM Agents:Mechanisms, Evaluation, and Emerging Frontierscited by 60
  31. 2025TRiSM for Agentic AI: A Review of Trust, Risk, and Security Management in LLM-based Agentic Multi-Agent Systemscited by 58
  32. 2023Experiential Co-Learning of Software-Developing Agentscited by 57
  33. 2025KVFlow: Efficient Prefix Caching for Accelerating LLM-Based Multi-Agent Workflowscited by 56
  34. 2025OdysseyBench: Evaluating LLM Agents on Long-Horizon Complex Office Application Workflowscited by 54
  35. 2025MARFT: Multi-Agent Reinforcement Fine-Tuningcited by 51
  36. 2026Taming Various Privilege Escalation in LLM-Based Agent Systems: A Mandatory Access Control Frameworkcited by 50
  37. 2023Towards Reasoning in Large Language Models via Multi-Agent Peer Review Collaborationcited by 48
  38. 2025RepoAudit: An Autonomous LLM-Agent for Repository-Level Code Auditingcited by 47

50 most cited of 893 All 893 (JSON)

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  3. 2026ChatDev 2.0: A No-Code Multi-Agent Platform for Developing Everything
  4. 2024Agents in Software Engineering: Survey, Landscape, and Vision
  5. 2025Generative AI and the Transformation of Software Development Practices
  6. 2026From Conversation to Contribution: Characterizing Coding Agent in Open-Source Software
  7. 2025SWE-Dev: Building Software Engineering Agents with Training and Inference Scaling
  8. 2023Autonomous Agents in Software Development: A Vision Paper