# Complex LLM Planning via Automated Heuristics Discovery

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.19295 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19295/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 30 of its 38 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 Feb 2025.

## 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)
- [Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14168/) (2021)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11171/) (2022)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Let's Verify Step by Step](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.20050/) (2023)
- [HotpotQA: A Dataset for Diverse, Explainable Multi-hop Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.09600/) (2018)
- [Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10601/) (2023)
- [Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16291/) (2023)
- [PaLM-E: An Embodied Multimodal Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.03378/) (2023)
- [AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03688/) (2023)
- [Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.05608/) (2022)
- [Large Language Models Cannot Self-Correct Reasoning Yet](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01798/) (2023)
- [Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.09687/) (2023)
- [Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14992/) (2023)
- [ProgPrompt: Generating Situated Robot Task Plans using Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.11302/) (2022)
- [MineDojo: Building Open-Ended Embodied Agents with Internet-Scale Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08853/) (2022)
- [Improve Mathematical Reasoning in Language Models by Automated Process Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06592/) (2024)
- [Language Models Are Greedy Reasoners: A Systematic Formal Analysis of Chain-of-Thought](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.01240/) (2022)
- [Evolution of Heuristics: Towards Efficient Automatic Algorithm Design Using Large Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.02051/) (2024)
- [LLMs Can't Plan, But Can Help Planning in LLM-Modulo Frameworks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01817/) (2024)
- [SMART-LLM: Smart Multi-Agent Robot Task Planning using Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.10062/) (2023)
- [On the Self-Verification Limitations of Large Language Models on Reasoning and Planning Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.08115/) (2024)
- [Large Language Models as Evolutionary Optimizers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.19046/) (2023)
- [LLMs Still Can't Plan; Can LRMs? A Preliminary Evaluation of OpenAI's o1 on PlanBench](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.13373/) (2024)
- [Algorithm of Thoughts: Enhancing Exploration of Ideas in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10379/) (2023)
- [Everything of Thoughts: Defying the Law of Penrose Triangle for Thought Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.04254/) (2023)
- [The Neglected Tails in Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12425/) (2024)
- [Inference-Time Computations for LLM Reasoning and Planning: A Benchmark and Insights](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12521/) (2025)
- [Amplifying human performance in combinatorial competitive programming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.19744/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Curriculum Reinforcement Learning from Easy to Hard Tasks Improves LLM Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06632/) (2025)
- [Classical Planning with LLM-Generated Heuristics: Challenging the State of the Art with Python Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18809/) (2025)
- [A Vision for Auto Research with LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.18765/) (2025)
- [A Systematic Survey on Large Language Models for Evolutionary Optimization: From Modeling to Solving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.08269/) (2025)
- [Toward Super Agent System with Hybrid AI Routers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10519/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models in Operations Research: Methods, Applications, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18180/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We consider enhancing large language models (LLMs) for complex planning tasks. While existing methods allow LLMs to explore intermediate steps to make plans, they either depend on unreliable self-verification or external verifiers to evaluate these steps, which demand significant data and computations. Here, we propose automated heuristics discovery (AutoHD), a novel approach that enables LLMs to explicitly generate heuristic functions to guide inference-time search, allowing accurate evaluation of intermediate states. These heuristic functions are further refined through a heuristic evolution process, improving their robustness and effectiveness. Our proposed method requires no additional model training or fine-tuning, and the explicit definition of heuristic functions generated by the LLMs provides interpretability and insights into the reasoning process. Extensive experiments across diverse benchmarks demonstrate significant gains over multiple baselines, including nearly twice the accuracy on some datasets, establishing our approach as a reliable and interpretable solution for complex planning tasks.