mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

FunReason: Enhancing Large Language Models' Function Calling via Self-Refinement Multiscale Loss and Automated Data Refinement

arXiv 2505.20192 ↗First posted 26 May 2025cs.LG cs.IRcited by 5

On the map: LLM reasoning → Test-time compute and efficient thinking

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

The integration of large language models (LLMs) with function calling has emerged as a crucial capability for enhancing their practical utility in real-world applications. However, effectively combining reasoning processes with accurate function execution remains a significant challenge. Traditional training approaches often struggle to balance the detailed reasoning steps with the precision of function calls, leading to suboptimal performance. To address these limitations, we introduce FunReason, a novel framework that enhances LLMs' function calling capabilities through an automated data refinement strategy and a Self-Refinement Multiscale Loss (SRML) approach. FunReason leverages LLMs' natural reasoning abilities to generate high-quality training examples, focusing on query parseability, reasoning coherence, and function call precision. The SRML approach dynamically balances the contribution of reasoning processes and function call accuracy during training, addressing the inherent trade-off between these two critical aspects. FunReason achieves performance comparable to GPT-4o while effectively mitigating catastrophic forgetting during fine-tuning. FunReason provides a comprehensive solution for enhancing LLMs' function calling capabilities by introducing a balanced training methodology and a data refinement pipeline. For code and dataset, please refer to our repository at GitHub https://github.com/BingguangHao/FunReason

Key facts. Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Test-time compute and efficient thinking, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 30 of its 55 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 26 May 2025.

Builds on

30 of 55 references.

References · 30

  1. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,132
  2. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 13,958
  3. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
  4. 2025Qwen3 Technical Reportcited by 8,195
  5. 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,053
  6. 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,146
  7. 2024GPT-4o System Cardcited by 4,467
  8. 2021Program Synthesis with Large Language Modelscited by 3,509
  9. 2023Qwen Technical Reportcited by 3,273
  10. 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 1,980
  11. 2024LlamaFactory: Unified Efficient Fine-Tuning of 100+ Language Modelscited by 1,442
  12. 2024Qwen2.5-Coder Technical Reportcited by 1,151
18 more
  1. 2023API-Bank: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Tool-Augmented LLMscited by 574
  2. 2025Reasoning Models Don't Always Say What They Thinkcited by 388
  3. 2025ToolRL: Reward is All Tool Learning Needscited by 342
  4. 2024ToolSandbox: A Stateful, Conversational, Interactive Evaluation Benchmark for LLM Tool Use Capabilitiescited by 272
  5. 2025APIGen-MT: Agentic Pipeline for Multi-Turn Data Generation via Simulated Agent-Human Interplaycited by 158
  6. 2024Evaluation of OpenAI o1: Opportunities and Challenges of AGIcited by 127
  7. 2024xLAM: A Family of Large Action Models to Empower AI Agent Systemscited by 108
  8. 2024Faithfulness vs. Plausibility: On the (Un)Reliability of Explanations from Large Language Modelscited by 104
  9. 2025Nemotron-Research-Tool-N1: Exploring Tool-Using Language Models with Reinforced Reasoningcited by 67
  10. 2025Tool-Star: Empowering LLM-Brained Multi-Tool Reasoner via Reinforcement Learningcited by 67
  11. 2024LLM With Tools: A Surveycited by 60
  12. 2024HumanEval Pro and MBPP Pro: Evaluating Large Language Models on Self-invoking Code Generationcited by 39
  13. 2025InSpire: Vision-Language-Action Models with Intrinsic Spatial Reasoningcited by 19
  14. 2024An LLM-Tool Compiler for Fused Parallel Function Callingcited by 14
  15. 2025ToolACE-R: Model-aware Iterative Training and Adaptive Refinement for Tool Learningcited by 9
  16. 2025Small Models, Big Tasks: An Exploratory Empirical Study on Small Language Models for Function Callingcited by 7
  17. 2023Translating Regulatory Clauses into Executable Codes for Building Design Checking via Large Language Model Driven Function Matching and Composingcited by 5
  18. 2024Mitigating Training Imbalance in LLM Fine-Tuning via Selective Parameter Mergingcited by 3

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 3; 2026: 2.

5 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2024Improving Small-Scale Large Language Models Function Calling for Reasoning Tasks
  2. 2024Inference Scaling vs Reasoning: An Empirical Analysis of Compute-Optimal LLM Problem-Solving
  3. 2025Think, Prune, Train, Improve: Scaling Reasoning without Scaling Models
  4. 2025Towards Reliable Benchmarking: A Contamination Free, Controllable Evaluation Framework for Multi-step LLM Function Calling
  5. 2026Tandem: Riding Together with Large and Small Language Models for Efficient Reasoning
  6. 2025Method-Based Reasoning for Large Language Models: Extraction, Reuse, and Continuous Improvement
  7. 2025From Implicit Exploration to Structured Reasoning: Leveraging Guideline and Refinement for LLMs
  8. 2025Reasoning on a Budget: A Survey of Adaptive and Controllable Test-Time Compute in LLMs