# Leveraging Environment Interaction for Automated PDDL Translation and Planning with Large Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12979 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12979/

## Key facts

- Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Jul 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasoners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11916/) (2022)
- [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)
- [Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12712/) (2023)
- [Teaching Large Language Models to Self-Debug](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05128/) (2023)
- [Faith and Fate: Limits of Transformers on Compositionality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18654/) (2023)
- [LLM+P: Empowering Large Language Models with Optimal Planning Proficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.11477/) (2023)
- [PlanBench: An Extensible Benchmark for Evaluating Large Language Models on Planning and Reasoning about Change](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.10498/) (2022)
- [TextWorld: A Learning Environment for Text-based Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.11532/) (2018)
- [Faithful Chain-of-Thought Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.13379/) (2023)
- [LEVER: Learning to Verify Language-to-Code Generation with Execution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08468/) (2023)
- [Leveraging Pre-trained Large Language Models to Construct and Utilize World Models for Model-based Task Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14909/) (2023)
- [Generalized Planning in PDDL Domains with Pretrained Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.11014/) (2023)
- [Translating Natural Language to Planning Goals with Large-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05128/) (2023)
- [Coder Reviewer Reranking for Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.16490/) (2022)
- [Dynamic Planning with a LLM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.06391/) (2023)
- [Predicate Invention for Bilevel Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09634/) (2022)
- [InterPreT: Interactive Predicate Learning from Language Feedback for Generalizable Task Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19758/) (2024)
- [Failures Are Fated, But Can Be Faded: Characterizing and Mitigating Unwanted Behaviors in Large-Scale Vision and Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07145/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Large Language Models for Planning: A Comprehensive and Systematic Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19683/) (2025)
- [Large language models for artificial general intelligence (AGI): A survey of foundational principles and approaches](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03151/) (2025)
- [Teaching LLMs to Plan: Logical Chain-of-Thought Instruction Tuning for Symbolic Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.13351/) (2025)
- [Generating Symbolic World Models via Test-time Scaling of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.04728/) (2025)
- [Simulation to Rules: A Dual-VLM Framework for Formal Visual Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.03182/) (2025)
- [End-to-end PDDL Planning with Hardcoded and Dynamic Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.09629/) (2025)
- [Safe and Interpretable Multimodal Path Planning for Multi-Agent Cooperation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.19304/) (2026)
- [EmboTeam: Grounding LLM Reasoning into Reactive Behavior Trees via PDDL for Embodied Multi-Robot Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.11063/) (2026)
- [Learning Hierarchical Domain Models Through Environment-Grounded Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13497/) (2025)
- [Specification-Driven Generation and Evaluation of Discrete-Event World Models via the DEVS Formalism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.03784/) (2026)
- [Agentic LLM Planning via Step-Wise PDDL Simulation: An Empirical Characterisation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06064/) (2026)
- [Model Space Reasoning as Search in Feedback Space for Planning Domain Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.08712/) (2026)
- [PO-PDDL: Learning Symbolic POMDPs from Visual Demonstrations for Robot Planning Under Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.15654/) (2026)
- [Toward Secure and Reliable PDDL Formalization of Large Language Models with Planner-in-the-Loop Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29700/) (2026)
- [RELIC: Revealed Principles for Learning Interpretable Composable Skills in Multi-Agent Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.16745/) (2026)
- [PDDL-ART: Autonomous Symbolic Abstraction From Demonstration For Long-Horizon Robotic Manipulation Using Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.17146/) (2026)
- [From Solver Feedback to Faithful Plans: Multi-Role Reinforcement Learning for Symbolic Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21897/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown remarkable performance in various natural language tasks, but they often struggle with planning problems that require structured reasoning. To address this limitation, the conversion of planning problems into the Planning Domain Definition Language (PDDL) has been proposed as a potential solution, enabling the use of automated planners. However, generating accurate PDDL files typically demands human inputs or correction, which can be time-consuming and costly. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that leverages LLMs and environment feedback to automatically generate PDDL domain and problem description files without the need for human intervention. Our method introduces an iterative refinement process that generates multiple problem PDDL candidates and progressively refines the domain PDDL based on feedback obtained from interacting with the environment. To guide the refinement process, we develop an Exploration Walk (EW) metric, which provides rich feedback signals for LLMs to update the PDDL file. We evaluate our approach on 10 PDDL environments. We achieve an average task solve rate of 66% compared to a 29% solve rate by GPT-4's intrinsic planning with chain-of-thought prompting. Our work enables the automated modeling of planning environments using LLMs and environment feedback, eliminating the need for human intervention in the PDDL translation process and paving the way for more reliable LLM agents in challenging problems. Our code is available at https://github.com/BorealisAI/llm-pddl-planning