# Extracting and Following Paths for Robust Relational Reasoning with Large Language Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.17963 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17963/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 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 8 of its 54 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Dec 2024.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Knowledge- and tool-augmented reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/knowledge-and-tool-augmented-reasoning/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [The Llama 3 Herd of Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21783/) (2024)
- [Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03374/) (2021)
- [OpenAI o1 System Card](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.16720/) (2024)
- [LaMDA: Language Models for Dialog Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.08239/) (2022)
- [From Word Models to World Models: Translating from Natural Language to the Probabilistic Language of Thought](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.12672/) (2023)
- [Rethinking Interpretability in the Era of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01761/) (2024)
- [Learning adaptive planning representations with natural language guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.08566/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Advances and Challenges in Foundation Agents: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Evolutionary, Collaborative, and Safe Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01990/) (2025)
- [Kinship Data Benchmark for Multi-hop Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07794/) (2026)
- [Relation as a Prior: A Novel Paradigm for LLM-based Document-level Relation Extraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.08143/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language models (LLMs) possess vast semantic knowledge but often struggle with complex reasoning tasks, particularly in relational reasoning problems such as kinship or spatial reasoning. In this paper, we present Path-of-Thoughts (PoT), a novel framework for solving relation reasoning that decomposes the task into three key stages: graph extraction, path identification, and reasoning. Unlike previous approaches, PoT efficiently extracts a reasoning graph that identifies crucial entities, relations, and attributes within the context. Subsequently, PoT identifies query-relevant reasoning paths within the graph, facilitating downstream reasoning of potential answers. Experimental evaluations across four datasets of relational reasoning demonstrate that PoT surpasses state-of-the-art baselines by a significant margin (up to 21.3%) without requiring fine-tuning or extensive LLM calls. Furthermore, unlike prior neuro-symbolic methods, PoT exhibits improved resilience against LLM extraction errors and input ambiguity by leveraging the compositional nature of graphs.