mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Large Language Model-Based Agents for Software Engineering: A Survey

arXiv 2409.02977 ↗First posted 4 Sep 2024cs.SE cs.AIcited by 173

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

Abstract (arXiv)

The recent advance in Large Language Models (LLMs) has shaped a new paradigm of AI agents, i.e., LLM-based agents. Compared to standalone LLMs, LLM-based agents substantially extend the versatility and expertise of LLMs by enhancing LLMs with the capabilities of perceiving and utilizing external resources and tools. To date, LLM-based agents have been applied and shown remarkable effectiveness in Software Engineering (SE). The synergy between multiple agents and human interaction brings further promise in tackling complex real-world SE problems. In this work, we present a comprehensive and systematic survey on LLM-based agents for SE. We collect 124 papers and categorize them from two perspectives, i.e., the SE and agent perspectives. In addition, we discuss open challenges and future directions in this critical domain. The repository of this survey is at https://github.com/FudanSELab/Agent4SE-Paper-List.

Key facts. Cited by 173 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 124 of its 208 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Sep 2024.

Builds on

124 of 208 references.

Closest ancestors · 13

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024Agentless: Demystifying LLM-based Software Engineering Agents1 Jul
  2. 2024MapCoder: Multi-Agent Code Generation for Competitive Problem Solving18 May
  3. 2024SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineering6 May
  4. 2024MARE: Multi-Agents Collaboration Framework for Requirements Engineering6 May
  5. 2024LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems for Software Engineering: Literature Review, Vision and the Road Ahead7 Apr
  6. 2024Elicitron: An LLM Agent-Based Simulation Framework for Design Requirements Elicitation4 Apr
  7. 2024Self-Organized Agents: A LLM Multi-Agent Framework toward Ultra Large-Scale Code Generation and Optimization2 Apr
  8. 2024MAGIS: LLM-Based Multi-Agent Framework for GitHub Issue Resolution26 Mar
  9. 2024RepairAgent: An Autonomous, LLM-Based Agent for Program Repair25 Mar
  10. 2024CodeAgent: Enhancing Code Generation with Tool-Integrated Agent Systems for Real-World Repo-level Coding Challenges14 Jan
  11. 2023RCAgent: Cloud Root Cause Analysis by Autonomous Agents with Tool-Augmented Large Language Models25 Oct
  12. 2023Static Code Analysis in the AI Era: An In-depth Exploration of the Concept, Function, and Potential of Intelligent Code Analysis Agents13 Oct
1 more
  1. 2023Self-collaboration Code Generation via ChatGPT15 Apr

Other references · 111

  1. 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
  2. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  3. 2022A ConvNet for the 2020scited by 3,545
  4. 2021Program Synthesis with Large Language Modelscited by 3,509
  5. 2023Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedbackcited by 3,317
  6. 2023SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?cited by 3,193
  7. 2023A Survey of Large Language Modelscited by 2,537
  8. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,203
  9. 2022Beyond the Imitation Game: Quantifying and extrapolating the capabilities of language modelscited by 1,970
  10. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,422
  11. 2023Is Your Code Generated by ChatGPT Really Correct? Rigorous Evaluation of Large Language Models for Code Generationcited by 1,332
  12. 2020Transformer Feed-Forward Layers Are Key-Value Memoriescited by 1,307
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  1. 2024DeepSeek-Coder: When the Large Language Model Meets Programming -- The Rise of Code Intelligencecited by 1,154
  2. 2024Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challengescited by 752
  3. 2023Siren's Song in the AI Ocean: A Survey on Hallucination in Large Language Modelscited by 695
  4. 2024A Survey on Large Language Models for Code Generationcited by 646
  5. 2024A Survey on the Memory Mechanism of Large Language Model based Agentscited by 622
  6. 2023AgentVerse: Facilitating Multi-Agent Collaboration and Exploring Emergent Behaviorscited by 580
  7. 2023Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Modelscited by 551
  8. 2024StarCoder 2 and The Stack v2: The Next Generationcited by 484
  9. 2023Augmented Language Models: a Surveycited by 398
  10. 2023Large Language Models for Software Engineering: A Systematic Literature Reviewcited by 389
  11. 2023Multi-Agent Collaboration: Harnessing the Power of Intelligent LLM Agentscited by 329
  12. 2024AutoCodeRover: Autonomous Program Improvementcited by 272
  13. 2017A Survey of Machine Learning for Big Code and Naturalnesscited by 220
  14. 2019Machine Learning Testing: Survey, Landscapes and Horizonscited by 213
  15. 2023AutoAgents: A Framework for Automatic Agent Generationcited by 211
  16. 2023An Empirical Evaluation of Using Large Language Models for Automated Unit Test Generationcited by 193
  17. 2023ART: Automatic multi-step reasoning and tool-use for large language modelscited by 193
  18. 2023Is Self-Repair a Silver Bullet for Code Generation?cited by 191
  19. 2023Large Language Models for Software Engineering: Survey and Open Problemscited by 178
  20. 2023Software Testing with Large Language Models: Survey, Landscape, and Visioncited by 163
  21. 2018SequenceR: Sequence-to-Sequence Learning for End-to-End Program Repaircited by 144
  22. 2022Practical Program Repair in the Era of Large Pre-trained Language Modelscited by 133
  23. 2024Exploring Large Language Model based Intelligent Agents: Definitions, Methods, and Prospectscited by 130
  24. 2023Keep the Conversation Going: Fixing 162 out of 337 bugs for 0.42 each using ChatGPTcited by 125
  25. 2023Learning Performance-Improving Code Editscited by 103
  26. 2022Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Fuzzers: Fuzzing Deep-Learning Libraries via Large Language Modelscited by 102
  27. 2024Code Generation with AlphaCodium: From Prompt Engineering to Flow Engineeringcited by 100
  28. 2024IRIS: LLM-Assisted Static Analysis for Detecting Security Vulnerabilitiescited by 100
  29. 2018SySeVR: A Framework for Using Deep Learning to Detect Software Vulnerabilitiescited by 91
  30. 2024CodeR: Issue Resolving with Multi-Agent and Task Graphscited by 89
  31. 2019Slither: A Static Analysis Framework For Smart Contractscited by 88
  32. 2023Impact of Code Language Models on Automated Program Repaircited by 85
  33. 2023No More Manual Tests? Evaluating and Improving ChatGPT for Unit Test Generationcited by 82
  34. 2022Less Training, More Repairing Please: Revisiting Automated Program Repair via Zero-shot Learningcited by 76
  35. 2023Evaluating the Code Quality of AI-Assisted Code Generation Tools: An Empirical Study on GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, and ChatGPTcited by 71
  36. 2024RepoAgent: An LLM-Powered Open-Source Framework for Repository-level Code Documentation Generationcited by 69
  37. 2022Repair Is Nearly Generation: Multilingual Program Repair with LLMscited by 68
  38. 2024Vul-RAG: Enhancing LLM-based Vulnerability Detection via Knowledge-level RAGcited by 67

50 most cited of 111 All 111 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 16; 2025: 73; 2026: 84.

173 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2024Agent-as-a-Judge: Evaluate Agents with Agentscited by 223
  2. 2024Large Language Model-Brained GUI Agents: A Surveycited by 160
  3. 2025A Survey of Context Engineering for Large Language Modelscited by 120
  4. 2025Red-Teaming LLM Multi-Agent Systems via Communication Attackscited by 118
  5. 2025Agent Lightning: Train ANY AI Agents with Reinforcement Learningcited by 94
  6. 2025Live-SWE-agent: Can Software Engineering Agents Self-Evolve on the Fly?cited by 91
  7. 2024From Individual to Society: A Survey on Social Simulation Driven by Large Language Model-based Agentscited by 76
  8. 2025SEC-bench: Automated Benchmarking of LLM Agents on Real-World Software Security Taskscited by 69
  9. 2025AI Research Agents for Machine Learning: Search, Exploration, and Generalization in MLE-benchcited by 65
  10. 2024SelfCodeAlign: Self-Alignment for Code Generationcited by 61
  11. 2024Lingma SWE-GPT: An Open Development-Process-Centric Language Model for Automated Software Improvementcited by 57
  12. 2024EnIGMA: Interactive Tools Substantially Assist LM Agents in Finding Security Vulnerabilitiescited by 51
38 more
  1. 2025A Survey on the Optimization of Large Language Model-based Agentscited by 45
  2. 2025Reducing Cost of LLM Agents with Trajectory Reductioncited by 44
  3. 2024Human-In-the-Loop Software Development Agentscited by 42
  4. 2026SWE-Pruner: Self-Adaptive Context Pruning for Coding Agentscited by 40
  5. 2025EnvBench: A Benchmark for Automated Environment Setupcited by 36
  6. 2025RiOSWorld: Benchmarking the Risk of Multimodal Computer-Use Agentscited by 34
  7. 2025MCP-AgentBench: Evaluating Real-World Language Agent Performance with MCP-Mediated Toolscited by 30
  8. 2025Reinforce LLM Reasoning through Multi-Agent Reflectioncited by 26
  9. 2025AI Agentic Programming: A Survey of Techniques, Challenges, and Opportunitiescited by 26
  10. 2024Agents4PLC: Automating Closed-loop PLC Code Generation and Verification in Industrial Control Systems using LLM-based Agentscited by 25
  11. 2026TermiGen: High-Fidelity Environment and Robust Trajectory Synthesis for Terminal Agentscited by 24
  12. 2025Speed at the Cost of Quality: How Cursor AI Increases Short-Term Velocity and Long-Term Complexity in Open-Source Projectscited by 23
  13. 2025Issue Localization via LLM-Driven Iterative Code Graph Searchingcited by 22
  14. 2025SWE-Synth: Synthesizing Verifiable Bug-Fix Data to Enable Large Language Models in Resolving Real-World Bugscited by 22
  15. 2025Large Language Model-based Data Science Agent: A Surveycited by 22
  16. 2025Exploring Autonomous Agents: A Closer Look at Why They Fail When Completing Taskscited by 20
  17. 2026CLI-Gym: Scalable CLI Task Generation via Agentic Environment Inversioncited by 20
  18. 2025Virtual Agent Economiescited by 17
  19. 2024Syzygy: Dual Code-Test C to (safe) Rust Translation using LLMs and Dynamic Analysiscited by 16
  20. 2025CodeFlowBench: A Multi-turn, Iterative Benchmark for Complex Code Generationcited by 16
  21. 2025CodeARC: Benchmarking Reasoning Capabilities of LLM Agents for Inductive Program Synthesiscited by 15
  22. 2024Defining and Detecting the Defects of the Large Language Model-based Autonomous Agentscited by 14
  23. 2026SkillMOO: Multi-Objective Optimization of Agent Skills for Software Engineeringcited by 14
  24. 2025FastMTP: Accelerating LLM Inference with Enhanced Multi-Token Predictioncited by 13
  25. 2026ARGUS: Defending LLM Agents Against Context-Aware Prompt Injectioncited by 13
  26. 2024CodeRepoQA: A Large-scale Benchmark for Software Engineering Question Answeringcited by 11
  27. 2025Seeing is Fixing: Cross-Modal Reasoning with Multimodal LLMs for Visual Software Issue Fixingcited by 11
  28. 2025Optimizing Agentic Language Model Inference via Speculative Tool Callscited by 11
  29. 2026SWE-Replay: Efficient Test-Time Scaling for Software Engineering Agentscited by 11
  30. 2026TrajAudit: Automated Failure Diagnosis for Agentic Coding Systemscited by 11
  31. 2024LLMs as Continuous Learners: Improving the Reproduction of Defective Code in Software Issuescited by 10
  32. 2024LLM Agent for Fire Dynamics Simulationscited by 10
  33. 2025A Call for Collaborative Intelligence: Why Human-Agent Systems Should Precede AI Autonomycited by 9
  34. 2026Beyond Resolution Rates: Behavioral Drivers of Coding Agent Success and Failurecited by 9
  35. 2024Don't Transform the Code, Code the Transforms: Towards Precise Code Rewriting using LLMscited by 8
  36. 2025Can Agents Fix Agent Issues?cited by 8
  37. 2025TimeCopilotcited by 8
  38. 2024TransAgent: Enhancing LLM-Based Code Translation via Fine-Grained Execution Alignmentcited by 7

50 most cited of 173 All 173 (JSON)

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