ToolFuzz -- Automated Agent Tool Testing
On the map: LLM reasoning → Reasoning for agents, planning and code
also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)
Large Language Model (LLM) Agents leverage the advanced reasoning capabilities of LLMs in real-world applications. To interface with an environment, these agents often rely on tools, such as web search or database APIs. As the agent provides the LLM with tool documentation along the user query, the completeness and correctness of this documentation is critical. However, tool documentation is often over-, under-, or ill-specified, impeding the agent's accuracy. Standard software testing approaches struggle to identify these errors as they are expressed in natural language. Thus, despite its importance, there currently exists no automated method to test the tool documentation for agents. To address this issue, we present ToolFuzz, the first method for automated testing of tool documentations. ToolFuzz is designed to discover two types of errors: (1) user queries leading to tool runtime errors and (2) user queries that lead to incorrect agent responses. ToolFuzz can generate a large and diverse set of natural inputs, effectively finding tool description errors at a low false positive rate. Further, we present two straightforward prompt-engineering approaches. We evaluate all three tool testing approaches on 32 common LangChain tools and 35 newly created custom tools and 2 novel benchmarks to further strengthen the assessment. We find that many publicly available tools suffer from underspecification. Specifically, we show that ToolFuzz identifies 20x more erroneous inputs compared to the prompt-engineering approaches, making it a key component for building reliable AI agents.
Key facts. Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reasoning for agents, planning and code, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 25 of its 40 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 6 Mar 2025.
Builds on
25 of 40 references.
Closest ancestors · 1
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Other references · 24
- 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
- 2023Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arenacited by 8,393
- 2022Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Modelscited by 5,601
- 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,081
- 2023WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agentscited by 1,908
- 2024SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineeringcited by 1,628
- 2024τ-bench: A Benchmark for Tool-Agent-User Interaction in Real-World Domainscited by 1,280
- 2023Mind2Web: Towards a Generalist Agent for the Webcited by 1,210
- 2022WebShop: Towards Scalable Real-World Web Interaction with Grounded Language Agentscited by 1,197
- 2023SelfCheckGPT: Zero-Resource Black-Box Hallucination Detection for Generative Large Language Modelscited by 787
- 2023Identifying the Risks of LM Agents with an LM-Emulated Sandboxcited by 514
- 2023ToolAlpaca: Generalized Tool Learning for Language Models with 3000 Simulated Casescited by 383
12 more
- 2023MetaTool Benchmark for Large Language Models: Deciding Whether to Use Tools and Which to Usecited by 209
- 2022Factuality Enhanced Language Models for Open-Ended Text Generationcited by 200
- 2023MAC-SQL: A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework for Text-to-SQLcited by 158
- 2024EASYTOOL: Enhancing LLM-based Agents with Concise Tool Instructioncited by 153
- 2023Self-contradictory Hallucinations of Large Language Models: Evaluation, Detection and Mitigationcited by 123
- 2023On the Tool Manipulation Capability of Open-source Large Language Modelscited by 122
- 2022Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Fuzzers: Fuzzing Deep-Learning Libraries via Large Language Modelscited by 102
- 2023Evaluating Superhuman Models with Consistency Checkscited by 47
- 2024From Exploration to Mastery: Enabling LLMs to Master Tools via Self-Driven Interactionscited by 46
- 2023Testing Language Model Agents Safely in the Wildcited by 45
- 2023WhiteFox: White-Box Compiler Fuzzing Empowered by Large Language Modelscited by 37
- 2024Tools Fail: Detecting Silent Errors in Faulty Toolscited by 23
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 12; 2026: 6.
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- 2025Model Context Protocol (MCP): Landscape, Security Threats, and Future Research Directionscited by 257
- 2025A survey of agent interoperability protocols: Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Communication Protocol (ACP), Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A), and Agent Network Protocol (ANP)cited by 98
- 2025TRAIL: Trace Reasoning and Agentic Issue Localizationcited by 98
- 2025LLM-based Agents Suffer from Hallucinations: A Survey of Taxonomy, Methods, and Directionscited by 49
- 2025AgentBound: Securing Execution Boundaries of AI Agentscited by 20
- 2025A Survey on Agentic Security: Applications, Threats and Defensescited by 17
- 2025A Measurement Study of Model Context Protocol Ecosystemcited by 13
- 2025From Code Foundation Models to Agents and Applications: A Comprehensive Survey and Practical Guide to Code Intelligencecited by 13
- 2025From Glue-Code to Protocols: A Critical Analysis of A2A and MCP Integration for Scalable Agent Systemscited by 12
- 2025SHIELDA: Structured Handling of Exceptions in LLM-Driven Agentic Workflowscited by 12
- 2025Automated Composition of Agents: A Knapsack Approach for Agentic Component Selectioncited by 10
- 2026AgenTRIM: Tool Risk Mitigation for Agentic AIcited by 9
6 more
- 2025A Survey of Inductive Reasoning for Large Language Modelscited by 8
- 2026Beyond Message Passing: A Semantic View of Agent Communication Protocolscited by 2
- 2026Open, Reliable, and Collective: A Community-Driven Framework for Tool-Using AI Agentscited by 1
- 2026LogicHunter: Testing LLM Agent Frameworks with an Agentic Oraclecited by 1
- 2026Towards Reliable AI Data Scientists: Data Agents with Workflow Harnessescited by 0
- 2026Do Agent Benchmarks Do What They Say? An Executable-Contract Audit of Tool-Using Agent Environmentscited by 0
- 2026Do Agent Benchmarks Do What They Say? An Executable-Contract Audit of Tool-Using Agent Environments29 Sep 2026
- 2026Towards Reliable AI Data Scientists: Data Agents with Workflow Harnesses28 Sep 2026
- 2026LogicHunter: Testing LLM Agent Frameworks with an Agentic Oracle7 Jul 2026
- 2026Open, Reliable, and Collective: A Community-Driven Framework for Tool-Using AI Agents31 Mar 2026
- 2026Beyond Message Passing: A Semantic View of Agent Communication Protocols30 Mar 2026
- 2026AgenTRIM: Tool Risk Mitigation for Agentic AI18 Jan 2026
- 2025From Code Foundation Models to Agents and Applications: A Comprehensive Survey and Practical Guide to Code Intelligence23 Nov 2025
- 2025AgentBound: Securing Execution Boundaries of AI Agents24 Oct 2025
- 2025Automated Composition of Agents: A Knapsack Approach for Agentic Component Selection18 Oct 2025
- 2025A Survey of Inductive Reasoning for Large Language Models11 Oct 2025
- 2025A Survey on Agentic Security: Applications, Threats and Defenses7 Oct 2025
- 2025A Measurement Study of Model Context Protocol Ecosystem29 Sep 2025
6 more
- 2025LLM-based Agents Suffer from Hallucinations: A Survey of Taxonomy, Methods, and Directions23 Sep 2025
- 2025SHIELDA: Structured Handling of Exceptions in LLM-Driven Agentic Workflows11 Aug 2025
- 2025TRAIL: Trace Reasoning and Agentic Issue Localization13 May 2025
- 2025From Glue-Code to Protocols: A Critical Analysis of A2A and MCP Integration for Scalable Agent Systems6 May 2025
- 2025A survey of agent interoperability protocols: Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Communication Protocol (ACP), Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A), and Agent Network Protocol (ANP)4 May 2025
- 2025Model Context Protocol (MCP): Landscape, Security Threats, and Future Research Directions30 Mar 2025
- 2025A survey of agent interoperability protocols: Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Communication Protocol (ACP), Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A), and Agent Network Protocol (ANP)cited by 98
- 2025LLM-based Agents Suffer from Hallucinations: A Survey of Taxonomy, Methods, and Directionscited by 49
- 2025AgentBound: Securing Execution Boundaries of AI Agentscited by 20
- 2025A Survey on Agentic Security: Applications, Threats and Defensescited by 17
- 2025A Measurement Study of Model Context Protocol Ecosystemcited by 13
- 2025From Code Foundation Models to Agents and Applications: A Comprehensive Survey and Practical Guide to Code Intelligencecited by 13
- 2025SHIELDA: Structured Handling of Exceptions in LLM-Driven Agentic Workflowscited by 12
- 2025Automated Composition of Agents: A Knapsack Approach for Agentic Component Selectioncited by 10
- 2026AgenTRIM: Tool Risk Mitigation for Agentic AIcited by 9
- 2026Beyond Message Passing: A Semantic View of Agent Communication Protocolscited by 2
- 2026Open, Reliable, and Collective: A Community-Driven Framework for Tool-Using AI Agentscited by 1
- 2026LogicHunter: Testing LLM Agent Frameworks with an Agentic Oraclecited by 1
12 most cited of 13 All 13 (JSON)
- 2026Towards Reliable AI Data Scientists: Data Agents with Workflow Harnesses28 Sep 2026
- 2026LogicHunter: Testing LLM Agent Frameworks with an Agentic Oracle7 Jul 2026
- 2026Open, Reliable, and Collective: A Community-Driven Framework for Tool-Using AI Agents31 Mar 2026
- 2026Beyond Message Passing: A Semantic View of Agent Communication Protocols30 Mar 2026
- 2026AgenTRIM: Tool Risk Mitigation for Agentic AI18 Jan 2026
- 2025From Code Foundation Models to Agents and Applications: A Comprehensive Survey and Practical Guide to Code Intelligence23 Nov 2025
- 2025AgentBound: Securing Execution Boundaries of AI Agents24 Oct 2025
- 2025Automated Composition of Agents: A Knapsack Approach for Agentic Component Selection18 Oct 2025
- 2025A Survey on Agentic Security: Applications, Threats and Defenses7 Oct 2025
- 2025A Measurement Study of Model Context Protocol Ecosystem29 Sep 2025
- 2025LLM-based Agents Suffer from Hallucinations: A Survey of Taxonomy, Methods, and Directions23 Sep 2025
- 2025SHIELDA: Structured Handling of Exceptions in LLM-Driven Agentic Workflows11 Aug 2025
12 newest of 13 All 13 (JSON)
- 2025TRAIL: Trace Reasoning and Agentic Issue Localizationcited by 98
- 2025A Survey of Inductive Reasoning for Large Language Modelscited by 8
- 2025A Survey of Inductive Reasoning for Large Language Models11 Oct 2025
- 2025TRAIL: Trace Reasoning and Agentic Issue Localization13 May 2025
- 2025Model Context Protocol (MCP): Landscape, Security Threats, and Future Research Directionscited by 257
- 2025From Glue-Code to Protocols: A Critical Analysis of A2A and MCP Integration for Scalable Agent Systemscited by 12
- 2026Do Agent Benchmarks Do What They Say? An Executable-Contract Audit of Tool-Using Agent Environmentscited by 0
- 2026Do Agent Benchmarks Do What They Say? An Executable-Contract Audit of Tool-Using Agent Environments29 Sep 2026
- 2025From Glue-Code to Protocols: A Critical Analysis of A2A and MCP Integration for Scalable Agent Systems6 May 2025
- 2025Model Context Protocol (MCP): Landscape, Security Threats, and Future Research Directions30 Mar 2025
Similar, not cited
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