# StructRAG: Boosting Knowledge Intensive Reasoning of LLMs via Inference-time Hybrid Information Structurization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08815 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08815/

## Key facts

- Cited by 71 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Knowledge- and tool-augmented reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 30 of its 41 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Oct 2024.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Knowledge- and tool-augmented reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/knowledge-and-tool-augmented-reasoning/)
- Retrieval-augmented generation / [RAG pipeline design and evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/rag/rag-pipeline-design-and-evaluation/)

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

- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18290/) (2023)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10997/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Hallucination in Large Language Models: Principles, Taxonomy, Challenges, and Open Questions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.05232/) (2023)
- [From Local to Global: A Graph RAG Approach to Query-Focused Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16130/) (2024)
- [Active Retrieval Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06983/) (2023)
- [Benchmarking Large Language Models in Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.01431/) (2023)
- [GraphGPT: Graph Instruction Tuning for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.13023/) (2023)
- [G-Retriever: Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Textual Graph Understanding and Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07630/) (2024)
- [BABILong: Testing the Limits of LLMs with Long Context Reasoning-in-a-Haystack](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10149/) (2024)
- [Teaching Large Language Models to Reason with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04642/) (2024)
- [Leave No Document Behind: Benchmarking Long-Context LLMs with Extended Multi-Doc QA](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.17419/) (2024)
- [A Survey of Knowledge-Enhanced Text Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.04389/) (2020)
- [Mitigating Large Language Model Hallucinations via Autonomous Knowledge Graph-based Retrofitting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.13314/) (2023)
- [A Multi-Task Embedder For Retrieval Augmented LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.07554/) (2023)
- [DRAGIN: Dynamic Retrieval Augmented Generation based on the Information Needs of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10081/) (2024)
- [Answering Complex Open-domain Questions Through Iterative Query Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07000/) (2019)
- [Generate-then-Ground in Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Multi-hop Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14891/) (2024)
- [Confabulation: The Surprising Value of Large Language Model Hallucinations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04175/) (2024)
- [M-RAG: Reinforcing Large Language Model Performance through Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Multiple Partitions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.16420/) (2024)
- [Grounding Language Model with Chunking-Free In-Context Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.09760/) (2024)
- [HOLMES: Hyper-Relational Knowledge Graphs for Multi-hop Question Answering using LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06027/) (2024)
- [Cross-Modal Retrieval Augmentation for Multi-Modal Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08108/) (2021)
- [Chain-of-Skills: A Configurable Model for Open-domain Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.03130/) (2023)
- [CorpusLM: Towards a Unified Language Model on Corpus for Knowledge-Intensive Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01176/) (2024)
- [BiasDPO: Mitigating Bias in Language Models through Direct Preference Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.13928/) (2024)
- [A Sequence-to-Sequence&Set Model for Text-to-Table Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00137/) (2023)
- [Structsum Generation for Faster Text Comprehension](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.06837/) (2024)
- [Meta-Cognitive Analysis: Evaluating Declarative and Procedural Knowledge in Datasets and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.09750/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 71)

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Graphs (GraphRAG)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.00309/) (2024)
- [A Survey of Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Customized Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13958/) (2025)
- [When to use Graphs in RAG: A Comprehensive Analysis for Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05690/) (2025)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Hierarchical Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.10150/) (2025)
- [Towards Agentic RAG with Deep Reasoning: A Survey of RAG-Reasoning Systems in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.09477/) (2025)
- [From Single to Multi-Granularity: Toward Long-Term Memory Association and Selection of Conversational Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19549/) (2025)
- [Search, Verify and Feedback: Towards Next Generation Post-training Paradigm of Foundation Models via Verifier Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11504/) (2024)
- [MMGraphRAG: Bridging Vision and Language with Interpretable Multimodal Knowledge Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.20804/) (2025)
- [Graph RAG-Tool Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07223/) (2025)
- [AdaVideoRAG: Omni-Contextual Adaptive Retrieval-Augmented Efficient Long Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13589/) (2025)
- [Credible Plan-Driven RAG Method for Multi-Hop Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.16787/) (2025)
- [LAG: Logic-Augmented Generation from a Cartesian Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.05509/) (2025)
- [DeepSolution: Boosting Complex Engineering Solution Design via Tree-based Exploration and Bi-point Thinking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20730/) (2025)
- [Cog-RAG: Cognitive-Inspired Dual-Hypergraph with Theme Alignment Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.13201/) (2025)
- [ReMindRAG: Low-Cost LLM-Guided Knowledge Graph Traversal for Efficient RAG](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.13193/) (2025)
- [SkillRAE: Agent Skill-Based Context Compilation for Retrieval-Augmented Execution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.10114/) (2026)
- [Grounding LLM Reasoning with Knowledge Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13247/) (2025)
- [Reason-Align-Respond: Aligning LLM Reasoning with Knowledge Graphs for KGQA](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.20971/) (2025)
- [AutoGraph-R1: End-to-End Reinforcement Learning for Knowledge Graph Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.15339/) (2025)
- [AGRAG: Advanced Graph-based Retrieval-Augmented Generation for LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.05549/) (2025)
- [Corpus2Skill: Distilling Enterprise Knowledge into Navigable Agent Skills for QA and RAG](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.14572/) (2026)
- [AgentAda: Skill-Adaptive Data Analytics for Tailored Insight Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07421/) (2025)
- [DF-RAG: Query-Aware Diversity for Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.17212/) (2026)
- [Large Language models for Time Series Analysis: Techniques, Applications, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.11040/) (2025)
- [Failure Modes in Multi-Hop QA: The Weakest Link Effect and the Recognition Bottleneck](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12499/) (2026)
- [Finding What Matters: Anchoring Context Knowledge with Evolving Indices for Iterative Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.16462/) (2026)
- [Use Graph When It Needs: Efficiently and Adaptively Integrating Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.03578/) (2026)
- [DocSage: An Information Structuring Agent for Multi-Doc Multi-Entity Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.11798/) (2026)
- [Finetune-RAG: Fine-Tuning Language Models to Resist Hallucination in Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10792/) (2025)
- [Structure-Augmented Reasoning Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08364/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a key means to effectively enhance large language models (LLMs) in many knowledge-based tasks. However, existing RAG methods struggle with knowledge-intensive reasoning tasks, because useful information required to these tasks are badly scattered. This characteristic makes it difficult for existing RAG methods to accurately identify key information and perform global reasoning with such noisy augmentation. In this paper, motivated by the cognitive theories that humans convert raw information into various structured knowledge when tackling knowledge-intensive reasoning, we proposes a new framework, StructRAG, which can identify the optimal structure type for the task at hand, reconstruct original documents into this structured format, and infer answers based on the resulting structure. Extensive experiments across various knowledge-intensive tasks show that StructRAG achieves state-of-the-art performance, particularly excelling in challenging scenarios, demonstrating its potential as an effective solution for enhancing LLMs in complex real-world applications.