# AgentNet: Decentralized Evolutionary Coordination for LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.00587 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00587/

## Key facts

- Cited by 90 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 25 of its 36 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Apr 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/agents/general-llm-agent-frameworks-and-benchmarks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 25 of 25)

- [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)
- [Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11171/) (2022)
- [Measuring Mathematical Problem Solving With the MATH Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.03874/) (2021)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10997/) (2023)
- [AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08155/) (2023)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [Challenging BIG-Bench Tasks and Whether Chain-of-Thought Can Solve Them](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.09261/) (2022)
- [Measuring Coding Challenge Competence With APPS](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09938/) (2021)
- [DSPy: Compiling Declarative Language Model Calls into Self-Improving Pipelines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03714/) (2023)
- [Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01680/) (2024)
- [AgentVerse: Facilitating Multi-Agent Collaboration and Exploring Emergent Behaviors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10848/) (2023)
- [API-Bank: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Tool-Augmented LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08244/) (2023)
- [Promptbreeder: Self-Referential Self-Improvement Via Prompt Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16797/) (2023)
- [AFlow: Automating Agentic Workflow Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.10762/) (2024)
- [A Dynamic LLM-Powered Agent Network for Task-Oriented Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02170/) (2023)
- [AgentSquare: Automatic LLM Agent Search in Modular Design Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06153/) (2024)
- [Cut the Crap: An Economical Communication Pipeline for LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02506/) (2024)
- [G-Designer: Architecting Multi-agent Communication Topologies via Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11782/) (2024)
- [Self-Evolving Multi-Agent Collaboration Networks for Software Development](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16946/) (2024)
- [LLM-based Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning: Current and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.11106/) (2024)
- [TRAD: Enhancing LLM Agents with Step-Wise Thought Retrieval and Aligned Decision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06221/) (2024)
- [MorphAgent: Empowering Agents through Self-Evolving Profiles and Decentralized Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.15048/) (2024)
- [Understanding and Optimizing Agentic Workflows via Shapley value](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.00510/) (2025)
- [Privacy-Enhancing Paradigms within Federated Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08175/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 90)

- [OWL: Optimized Workforce Learning for General Multi-Agent Assistance in Real-World Task Automation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23885/) (2025)
- [Your Agent May Misevolve: Emergent Risks in Self-evolving LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.26354/) (2025)
- [MARFT: Multi-Agent Reinforcement Fine-Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.16129/) (2025)
- [Agentic Web: Weaving the Next Web with AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21206/) (2025)
- [Multi-Agent Teams Hold Experts Back](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.01011/) (2026)
- [Toward Efficient Agents: Memory, Tool learning, and Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.14192/) (2026)
- [LatentMem: Customizing Latent Memory for Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.03036/) (2026)
- [Survey of LLM Agent Communication with MCP: A Software Design Pattern Centric Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05364/) (2025)
- [Maestro: Learning to Collaborate via Conditional Listwise Policy Optimization for Multi-Agent LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.06134/) (2025)
- [Agent Primitives: Reusable Latent Building Blocks for Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.03695/) (2026)
- [SciSage: A Multi-Agent Framework for High-Quality Scientific Survey Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.12689/) (2025)
- [How to Train a Leader: Hierarchical Reasoning in Multi-Agent LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.08960/) (2025)
- [Distributional AGI Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.16856/) (2025)
- [Harnessing the Collective Intelligence of AI Agents in the Wild for New Discoveries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.10402/) (2026)
- [Stochastic Self-Organization in Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.00685/) (2025)
- [Learning Decentralized LLM Collaboration with Multi-Agent Actor Critic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.21972/) (2026)
- [Information-Theoretic Privacy Control for Sequential Multi-Agent LLM Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.05520/) (2026)
- [DiLLS: Interactive Diagnosis of LLM-based Multi-agent Systems via Layered Summary of Agent Behaviors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.05446/) (2026)
- [Agentic Services Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.24380/) (2025)
- [SMMBench: A Benchmark for Source-Distributed Multimodal Agent Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.15710/) (2026)
- [Self-Evolving Multi-Agent Systems via Decentralized Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22721/) (2026)
- [LCGuard: Latent Communication Guard for Safe KV Sharing in Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22786/) (2026)
- [Physics of Agents: Statistical Mechanics Predicts Collective Behavior of AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.16578/) (2026)
- [Multi-level Value Alignment in Agentic AI Systems: Survey and Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09656/) (2025)
- [MonoScale: Scaling Multi-Agent System with Monotonic Improvement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.23219/) (2026)
- [Economy of Minds: Emerging Multi-Agent Intelligence with Economic Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.02859/) (2026)
- [PhenoAssistant: A Conversational Multi-Agent AI System for Automated Plant Phenotyping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19818/) (2025)
- [Generalizing Test-time Compute-optimal Scaling as an Optimizable Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.00086/) (2025)
- [Optimizing PyTorch Inference with LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.16964/) (2025)
- [AgentWebBench: Benchmarking Multi-Agent Coordination in Agentic Web](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.10938/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid advancement of large language models (LLMs) has enabled the development of multi-agent systems where multiple LLM-based agents collaborate on complex tasks. However, existing systems often rely on centralized coordination, leading to scalability bottlenecks, reduced adaptability, and single points of failure. Privacy and proprietary knowledge concerns further hinder cross-organizational collaboration, resulting in siloed expertise. We propose AgentNet, a decentralized, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)-based framework that enables LLM-based agents to specialize, evolve, and collaborate autonomously in a dynamically structured Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). Unlike prior approaches with static roles or centralized control, AgentNet allows agents to adjust connectivity and route tasks based on local expertise and context. AgentNet introduces three key innovations: (1) a fully decentralized coordination mechanism that eliminates the need for a central orchestrator, enhancing robustness and emergent intelligence; (2) dynamic agent graph topology that adapts in real time to task demands, ensuring scalability and resilience; and (3) a retrieval-based memory system for agents that supports continual skill refinement and specialization. By minimizing centralized control and data exchange, AgentNet enables fault-tolerant, privacy-preserving collaboration across organizations. Experiments show that AgentNet achieves higher task accuracy than both single-agent and centralized multi-agent baselines.