mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

LayerCraft: Enhancing Text-to-Image Generation with CoT Reasoning and Layered Object Integration

arXiv 2504.00010 ↗First posted 25 Mar 2025cs.LG cs.GR cs.MAcited by 19

On the map: LLM reasoning → Multimodal reasoning

Abstract (arXiv)

Text-to-image (T2I) generation has made remarkable progress, yet existing systems still lack intuitive control over spatial composition, object consistency, and multi-step editing. We present LayerCraft, a modular framework that uses large language models (LLMs) as autonomous agents to orchestrate structured, layered image generation and editing. LayerCraft supports two key capabilities: (1) textitstructured generation from simple prompts via chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning, enabling it to decompose scenes, reason about object placement, and guide composition in a controllable, interpretable manner; and (2) textitlayered object integration, allowing users to insert and customize objects -- such as characters or props -- across diverse images or scenes while preserving identity, context, and style. The system comprises a coordinator agent, the ChainArchitect for CoT-driven layout planning, and the Object Integration Network (OIN) for seamless image editing using off-the-shelf T2I models without retraining. Through applications like batch collage editing and narrative scene generation, LayerCraft empowers non-experts to iteratively design, customize, and refine visual content with minimal manual effort. Code will be released at https://github.com/PeterYYZhang/LayerCraft.

Key facts. Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 24 of its 60 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 25 Mar 2025.

Builds on

24 of 60 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024KAM-CoT: Knowledge Augmented Multimodal Chain-of-Thoughts Reasoning23 Jan
  2. 2023Multimodal Chain-of-Thought Reasoning in Language Models2 Feb

Other references · 22

  1. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,396
  2. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,585
  3. 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,356
  4. 2021GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Modelscited by 3,614
  5. 2024SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videoscited by 2,863
  6. 2023MiniGPT-4: Enhancing Vision-Language Understanding with Advanced Large Language Modelscited by 2,711
  7. 2022An Image is Worth One Word: Personalizing Text-to-Image Generation using Textual Inversioncited by 2,245
  8. 2023IP-Adapter: Text Compatible Image Prompt Adapter for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 1,464
  9. 2023Gemini: A Family of Highly Capable Multimodal Modelscited by 872
  10. 2025Janus-Pro: Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generation with Data and Model Scalingcited by 812
  11. 2024Autoregressive Model Beats Diffusion: Llama for Scalable Image Generationcited by 777
  12. 2024Show-o: One Single Transformer to Unify Multimodal Understanding and Generationcited by 752
10 more
  1. 2024OminiControl: Minimal and Universal Control for Diffusion Transformercited by 340
  2. 2024PixArt-Sigma: Weak-to-Strong Training of Diffusion Transformer for 4K Text-to-Image Generationcited by 329
  3. 2024Hunyuan-DiT: A Powerful Multi-Resolution Diffusion Transformer with Fine-Grained Chinese Understandingcited by 298
  4. 2024Playground v2.5: Three Insights towards Enhancing Aesthetic Quality in Text-to-Image Generationcited by 256
  5. 2025EasyControl: Adding Efficient and Flexible Control for Diffusion Transformercited by 119
  6. 2025ACE++: Instruction-Based Image Creation and Editing via Context-Aware Content Fillingcited by 95
  7. 2024Motion-Agent: A Conversational Framework for Human Motion Generation with LLMscited by 47
  8. 2025WorldCraft: Photo-Realistic 3D World Creation and Customization via LLM Agentscited by 21
  9. 2024WorldGPT: A Sora-Inspired Video AI Agent as Rich World Models from Text and Image Inputscited by 15
  10. 2024Divide and Conquer: Language Models can Plan and Self-Correct for Compositional Text-to-Image Generationcited by 4

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 6; 2026: 13.

19 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2025Uni-cot: Towards Unified Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Across Text and Visioncited by 56
  2. 2025PromptEnhancer: A Simple Approach to Enhance Text-to-Image Models via Chain-of-Thought Prompt Rewritingcited by 43
  3. 2025RePrompt: Reasoning-Augmented Reprompting for Text-to-Image Generation via Reinforcement Learningcited by 23
  4. 2025Judging with Many Minds: Do More Perspectives Mean Less Prejudice? On Bias Amplifications and Resistance in Multi-Agent Based LLM-as-Judgecited by 11
  5. 2026Chain of Event-Centric Causal Thought for Physically Plausible Video Generationcited by 6
  6. 2026Collaborative Multi-Agent Scripts Generation for Enhancing Imperfect-Information Reasoning in Murder Mystery Gamescited by 6
  7. 2025The Consistency Critic: Correcting Inconsistencies in Generated Images via Reference-Guided Attentive Alignmentcited by 5
  8. 2026MetaPoint: Unlocking Precise Spatial Control in Agentic Visual Generationcited by 4
  9. 2025UltraImageGen: Efficient Ultra-High-Resolution Image Generation with Hierarchical Local Attentioncited by 3
  10. 2026StruVis: Enhancing Reasoning-based Text-to-Image Generation via Thinking with Structured Visioncited by 3
  11. 2026IV-CoT: Implicit Visual Chain-of-Thought for Structure-Aware Text-to-Image Generationcited by 2
  12. 2026SpatialGuard: Harness-Guided Verifiable Spatial Reasoning for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 2
7 more
  1. 2026From Plans to Pixels: Learning to Plan and Orchestrate for Open-Ended Image Editingcited by 1
  2. 2026Think, Plan, Paint: Layout-Aware Reasoning for Controllable Image Generation in Unified Modelscited by 1
  3. 2026Agentic Visual Generation: From Generative Models to Agentic Controlcited by 1
  4. 2026MoGen: A Unified Collaborative Framework for Controllable Multi-Object Image Generationcited by 0
  5. 2026Training-Free Object-Background Compositional T2I via Dynamic Spatial Guidance and Multi-Path Pruningcited by 0
  6. 2026HierEdit: Region-Aware Hierarchical Diffusion for Efficient High-Resolution Editingcited by 0
  7. 2026Physically Plausible Video Generation via Visual-Semantic Chain-of-Events Conditioningcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026CoCo: Code as CoT for Text-to-Image Preview and Rare Concept Generation
  2. 2024GraPE: A Generate-Plan-Edit Framework for Compositional T2I Synthesis
  3. 2025Towards Enhanced Image Generation Via Multi-modal Chain of Thought in Unified Generative Models
  4. 2025CRAFT: Continuous Reasoning and Agentic Feedback Tuning for Multimodal Text-to-Image Generation
  5. 2025Draw ALL Your Imagine: A Holistic Benchmark and Agent Framework for Complex Instruction-based Image Generation
  6. 2025A Two-Stage System for Layout-Controlled Image Generation using Large Language Models and Diffusion Models
  7. 2025GoT: Unleashing Reasoning Capability of Multimodal Large Language Model for Visual Generation and Editing
  8. 2026UniWorld-Design: From Pixel Generation to Layer-Native Design