# OmAgent: A Multi-modal Agent Framework for Complex Video Understanding with Task Divide-and-Conquer

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.16620 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16620/

## Key facts

- Cited by 34 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 16 of its 32 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Jun 2024.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Multimodal and embodied agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/multimodal-and-embodied-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 16 of 16)

- [Robust Speech Recognition via Large-Scale Weak Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04356/) (2022)
- [Program Synthesis with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07732/) (2021)
- [Video-LLaMA: An Instruction-tuned Audio-Visual Language Model for Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.02858/) (2023)
- [Video-LLaVA: Learning United Visual Representation by Alignment Before Projection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.10122/) (2023)
- [Reading Wikipedia to Answer Open-Domain Questions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.00051/) (2017)
- [MM-REACT: Prompting ChatGPT for Multimodal Reasoning and Action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11381/) (2023)
- [LanguageBind: Extending Video-Language Pretraining to N-modality by Language-based Semantic Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01852/) (2023)
- [FreshLLMs: Refreshing Large Language Models with Search Engine Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03214/) (2023)
- [VideoTree: Adaptive Tree-based Video Representation for LLM Reasoning on Long Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19209/) (2024)
- [VideoAgent: A Memory-augmented Multimodal Agent for Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11481/) (2024)
- [Video Understanding with Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.17432/) (2023)
- [MM-VID: Advancing Video Understanding with GPT-4V(ision)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.19773/) (2023)
- [SOK-Bench: A Situated Video Reasoning Benchmark with Aligned Open-World Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.09713/) (2024)
- [iRAG: Advancing RAG for Videos with an Incremental Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.12309/) (2024)
- [Multimodal Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning Policy for Task-Oriented Visual Dialog](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.03257/) (2018)
- [DialPort: Connecting the Spoken Dialog Research Community to Real User Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.02562/) (2016)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 34)

- [Video-RAG: Visually-aligned Retrieval-Augmented Long Video Comprehension](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.13093/) (2024)
- [ReAgent-V: A Reward-Driven Multi-Agent Framework for Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.01300/) (2025)
- [Logic-in-Frames: Dynamic Keyframe Search via Visual Semantic-Logical Verification for Long Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.13139/) (2025)
- [StreamAgent: Towards Anticipatory Agents for Streaming Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01875/) (2025)
- [Retrieval Augmented Generation and Understanding in Vision: A Survey and New Outlook](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18016/) (2025)
- [Vgent: Graph-based Retrieval-Reasoning-Augmented Generation For Long Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.14032/) (2025)
- [LVOmniBench: Pioneering Long Audio-Video Understanding Evaluation for Omnimodal LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.19217/) (2026)
- [Why Reasoning Matters? A Survey of Advancements in Multimodal Reasoning (v1)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03151/) (2025)
- [Does Your Vision-Language Model Get Lost in the Long Video Sampling Dilemma?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12496/) (2025)
- [Murakkab: Resource-Efficient Agentic Workflow Orchestration in Cloud Platforms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.18298/) (2025)
- [AdaVideoRAG: Omni-Contextual Adaptive Retrieval-Augmented Efficient Long Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13589/) (2025)
- [A Survey on Agent Workflow -- Status and Future](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01186/) (2025)
- [Active Perception Agent for Omnimodal Audio-Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.23646/) (2025)
- [DualVLA: Building a Generalizable Embodied Agent via Partial Decoupling of Reasoning and Action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22134/) (2025)
- [Tool-Augmented Spatiotemporal Reasoning for Streamlining Video Question Answering Task](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.10359/) (2025)
- [VideoExpert: Augmented LLM for Temporal-Sensitive Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07519/) (2025)
- [Think, Then Verify: A Hypothesis-Verification Multi-Agent Framework for Long Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04977/) (2026)
- [Agentic Video Intelligence: A Flexible Framework for Advanced Video Exploration and Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.14446/) (2025)
- [ImageRAG: Enhancing Ultra High Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery Analysis with ImageRAG](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07688/) (2024)
- [Towards Resource-Efficient Compound AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16634/) (2025)
- [AViLA: Asynchronous Vision-Language Agent for Streaming Multimodal Data Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.18472/) (2025)
- [VideoStir: Understanding Long Videos via Spatio-Temporally Structured and Intent-Aware RAG](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.05418/) (2026)
- [HAWK: A Hierarchical Workflow Framework for Multi-Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04067/) (2025)
- [SVAgent: Storyline-Guided Long Video Understanding via Cross-Modal Multi-Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.05079/) (2026)
- [Sandboxed Coding Agents are Competitive Omni-modal Task Solvers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00579/) (2026)
- [Audio-Visual Exchange-Aware Token Pruning for Efficient Audio-Visual Captioning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.10533/) (2026)
- [MetaVideoAgent: Automated Video-Agent Evolution for Long-Form Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.04587/) (2026)
- [Empowering Multimodal LLMs with External Tools: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.10955/) (2025)
- [CMRAG: Co-modality-based visual document retrieval and question answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.02123/) (2025)
- [HiCrew: Hierarchical Reasoning for Long-Form Video Understanding via Question-Aware Multi-Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.21444/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) have expanded their capabilities to multimodal contexts, including comprehensive video understanding. However, processing extensive videos such as 24-hour CCTV footage or full-length films presents significant challenges due to the vast data and processing demands. Traditional methods, like extracting key frames or converting frames to text, often result in substantial information loss. To address these shortcomings, we develop OmAgent, efficiently stores and retrieves relevant video frames for specific queries, preserving the detailed content of videos. Additionally, it features an Divide-and-Conquer Loop capable of autonomous reasoning, dynamically invoking APIs and tools to enhance query processing and accuracy. This approach ensures robust video understanding, significantly reducing information loss. Experimental results affirm OmAgent's efficacy in handling various types of videos and complex tasks. Moreover, we have endowed it with greater autonomy and a robust tool-calling system, enabling it to accomplish even more intricate tasks.