# StateFlow: Enhancing LLM Task-Solving through State-Driven Workflows

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.11322 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11322/

## Key facts

- Cited by 65 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 46 of its 66 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 46)

- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasoners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11916/) (2022)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17651/) (2023)
- [Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10601/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11432/) (2023)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10997/) (2023)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.07864/) (2023)
- [Least-to-Most Prompting Enables Complex Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10625/) (2022)
- [WebShop: Towards Scalable Real-World Web Interaction with Grounded Language Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.01206/) (2022)
- [Mind2Web: Towards a Generalist Agent for the Web](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.06070/) (2023)
- [ALFWorld: Aligning Text and Embodied Environments for Interactive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.03768/) (2020)
- [Teaching Large Language Models to Self-Debug](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05128/) (2023)
- [STaR: Bootstrapping Reasoning With Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14465/) (2022)
- [Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09687/) (2023)
- [Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14992/) (2023)
- [REPLUG: Retrieval-Augmented Black-Box Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12652/) (2023)
- [CRITIC: Large Language Models Can Self-Correct with Tool-Interactive Critiquing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.11738/) (2023)
- [Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04406/) (2023)
- [Plan-and-Solve Prompting: Improving Zero-Shot Chain-of-Thought Reasoning by Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.04091/) (2023)
- [Cognitive Architectures for Language Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.02427/) (2023)
- [LeanDojo: Theorem Proving with Retrieval-Augmented Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.15626/) (2023)
- [Augmented Language Models: a Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.07842/) (2023)
- [Language Models can Solve Computer Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17491/) (2023)
- [TextWorld: A Learning Environment for Text-based Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.11532/) (2018)
- [MINT: Evaluating LLMs in Multi-turn Interaction with Tools and Language Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.10691/) (2023)
- [Reasoning with Language Model Prompting: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09597/) (2022)
- [InterCode: Standardizing and Benchmarking Interactive Coding with Execution Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14898/) (2023)
- [Large Language Model Guided Tree-of-Thought](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.08291/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 65)

- [Why Do Multi-Agent LLM Systems Fail?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.13657/) (2025)
- [Absolute Zero: Reinforced Self-play Reasoning with Zero Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.03335/) (2025)
- [Agent-as-a-Judge: Evaluate Agents with Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.10934/) (2024)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model-Based Game Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02039/) (2024)
- [Internet of Agents: Weaving a Web of Heterogeneous Agents for Collaborative Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07061/) (2024)
- [AutoFlow: Automated Workflow Generation for Large Language Model Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12821/) (2024)
- [Diversity Empowers Intelligence: Integrating Expertise of Software Engineering Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.07060/) (2024)
- [ReflAct: World-Grounded Decision Making in LLM Agents via Goal-State Reflection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.15182/) (2025)
- [Thought Communication in Multiagent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.20733/) (2025)
- [SimpleDoc: Multi-Modal Document Understanding with Dual-Cue Page Retrieval and Iterative Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.14035/) (2025)
- [StateAct: Enhancing LLM Base Agents via Self-prompting and State-tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02810/) (2024)
- [MetaAgent: Automatically Constructing Multi-Agent Systems Based on Finite State Machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.22606/) (2025)
- [Beyond Outlining: Heterogeneous Recursive Planning for Adaptive Long-form Writing with Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08275/) (2025)
- [ExCyTIn-Bench: Evaluating LLM agents on Cyber Threat Investigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14201/) (2025)
- [HDFlow: Enhancing LLM Complex Problem-Solving with Hybrid Thinking and Dynamic Workflows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17433/) (2024)
- [Runaway is Ashamed, But Helpful: On the Early-Exit Behavior of Large Language Model-based Agents in Embodied Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17616/) (2025)
- [Shapley-Coop: Credit Assignment for Emergent Cooperation in Self-Interested LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07388/) (2025)
- [EcoAct: Economic Agent Determines When to Register What Action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.01643/) (2024)
- [Cognitive Kernel: An Open-source Agent System towards Generalist Autopilots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10277/) (2024)
- [Agent-S: LLM Agentic workflow to automate Standard Operating Procedures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15520/) (2025)
- [Recursive Experiential-Working Memory Evolution for Long-Horizon Agent Harnesses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.24876/) (2026)
- [GeoFlow: Agentic Workflow Automation for Geospatial Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.04719/) (2025)
- [Live-Evo: Online Evolution of Agentic Memory from Continuous Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.02369/) (2026)
- [PRACT: Optimizing Principled Reasoning and Acting of LLM Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18528/) (2024)
- [Automating Structural Engineering Workflows with Large Language Model Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11004/) (2025)
- [The Bitter Lesson of Diffusion Language Models for Agentic Workflows: A Comprehensive Reality Check](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12979/) (2026)
- [QDA-SQL: Questions Enhanced Dialogue Augmentation for Multi-Turn Text-to-SQL](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10593/) (2024)
- [AutoMisty: A Multi-Agent LLM Framework for Automated Code Generation in the Misty Social Robot](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06791/) (2025)
- [MM-Doc-R1: Training Agents for Long Document Visual Question Answering through Multi-turn Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13579/) (2026)
- [Enhancing Financial RAG with Agentic AI and Multi-HyDE: A Novel Approach to Knowledge Retrieval and Hallucination Reduction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.16369/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

It is a notable trend to use Large Language Models (LLMs) to tackle complex tasks, e.g., tasks that require a sequence of actions and dynamic interaction with tools and external environments. In this paper, we propose StateFlow, a novel LLM-based task-solving paradigm that conceptualizes complex task-solving processes as state machines. In StateFlow, we distinguish between "process grounding" (via state and state transitions) and "sub-task solving" (through actions within a state), enhancing control and interpretability of the task-solving procedure. A state represents the status of a running process. The transitions between states are controlled by heuristic rules or decisions made by the LLM, allowing for a dynamic and adaptive progression. Upon entering a state, a series of actions is executed, involving not only calling LLMs guided by different prompts, but also the utilization of external tools as needed. Our results show that StateFlow significantly enhances LLMs' efficiency. For instance, StateFlow achieves 13% and 28% higher success rates compared to ReAct in InterCode SQL and ALFWorld benchmark, with 5x and 3x less cost respectively. We also show that StateFlow can be combined with iterative refining methods like Reflexion to further improve performance.