RepoMaster: Autonomous Exploration and Understanding of GitHub Repositories for Complex Task Solving
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Abstract (arXiv)
The ultimate goal of code agents is to solve complex tasks autonomously. Although large language models (LLMs) have made substantial progress in code generation, real-world tasks typically demand full-fledged code repositories rather than simple scripts. Building such repositories from scratch remains a major challenge. Fortunately, GitHub hosts a vast, evolving collection of open-source repositories, which developers frequently reuse as modular components for complex tasks. Yet, existing frameworks like OpenHands and SWE-Agent still struggle to effectively leverage these valuable resources. Relying solely on README files provides insufficient guidance, and deeper exploration reveals two core obstacles: overwhelming information and tangled dependencies of repositories, both constrained by the limited context windows of current LLMs. To tackle these issues, we propose RepoMaster, an autonomous agent framework designed to explore and reuse GitHub repositories for solving complex tasks. For efficient understanding, RepoMaster constructs function-call graphs, module-dependency graphs, and hierarchical code trees to identify essential components, providing only identified core elements to the LLMs rather than the entire repository. During autonomous execution, it progressively explores related components using our exploration tools and prunes information to optimize context usage. Evaluated on the adjusted MLE-bench, RepoMaster achieves a 110% relative boost in valid submissions over the strongest baseline OpenHands. On our newly released GitTaskBench, RepoMaster lifts the task-pass rate from 40.7% to 62.9% while reducing token usage by 95%. Our code and demonstration materials are publicly available at https://github.com/QuantaAlpha/RepoMaster.
Key facts. Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 36 of its 55 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 27 May 2025.
Builds on
36 of 55 references.
References · 36
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- 2024SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineeringcited by 1,737
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- 2022Competition-Level Code Generation with AlphaCodecited by 1,462
- 2024OpenHands: An Open Platform for AI Software Developers as Generalist Agentscited by 1,002
- 2023StarCoder: may the source be with you!cited by 799
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- 2024Executable Code Actions Elicit Better LLM Agentscited by 564
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- 2023RepoCoder: Repository-Level Code Completion Through Iterative Retrieval and Generationcited by 367
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- 2024DeepSeek-Coder-V2: Breaking the Barrier of Closed-Source Models in Code Intelligencecited by 331
- 2025PaperBench: Evaluating AI's Ability to Replicate AI Researchcited by 321
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- 2024Tool Learning with Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 223
- 2024DebugBench: Evaluating Debugging Capability of Large Language Modelscited by 76
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- 2023ML-Bench: Evaluating Large Language Models and Agents for Machine Learning Tasks on Repository-Level Codecited by 65
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- 2024ToolEyes: Fine-Grained Evaluation for Tool Learning Capabilities of Large Language Models in Real-world Scenarioscited by 35
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 7; 2026: 12.
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- 2025GitTaskBench: A Benchmark for Code Agents Solving Real-World Tasks Through Code Repository Leveragingcited by 25
- 2025Retrieval-Augmented Code Generation: A Survey with Focus on Repository-Level Approachescited by 23
- 2025AutoMLGen: Navigating Fine-Grained Optimization for Coding Agentscited by 18
- 2026Current Agents Fail to Leverage World Model as Tool for Foresightcited by 17
- 2025Code2MCP: Transforming Code Repositories into MCP Servicescited by 10
- 2025MINED: Probing and Updating with Multimodal Time-Sensitive Knowledge for Large Multimodal Modelscited by 7
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- 2026AblateCell: A Reproduce-then-Ablate Agent for Virtual Cell Repositoriescited by 0
- 2026MCPEvol-Bench: Benchmarking LLM Agent Performance Across Dynamic Evolutions of MCP Serverscited by 0
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- 2026FeatLens: Feature-Guided Dynamic Code Graph Construction and Retrieval for Repository-Level Code Generationcited by 0
- 2026FeatLens: Feature-Guided Dynamic Code Graph Construction and Retrieval for Repository-Level Code Generation22 Sep 2026
- 2026MADE: Belief-Driven Dual-Agent Coordination for Autonomous Model Deployment2 Aug 2026
- 2026MCPEvol-Bench: Benchmarking LLM Agent Performance Across Dynamic Evolutions of MCP Servers16 Jul 2026
- 2026DeepDiscovery: A Location-Inference Framework for Task-Level Repository Understanding22 Jun 2026
- 2026Agentic Agile-V: From Vibe Coding to Verified Engineering in Software and Hardware Development19 May 2026
- 2026AblateCell: A Reproduce-then-Ablate Agent for Virtual Cell Repositories21 Apr 2026
- 2026SW-A2-Bench: Benchmarking Autonomous Software Agent Generation for Agentic Web5 Apr 2026
- 2026ToolRosella: Translating Code Repositories into Standardized Tools for Scientific Agents10 Mar 2026
- 2026HarmonyCell: Automating Single-Cell Perturbation Modeling under Semantic and Distribution Shifts2 Mar 2026
- 2026Learning to Ideate for Machine Learning Engineering Agents24 Jan 2026
- 2026EvoFSM: Controllable Self-Evolution for Deep Research with Finite State Machines14 Jan 2026
- 2026Current Agents Fail to Leverage World Model as Tool for Foresight7 Jan 2026
7 more
- 2025Gistify! Codebase-Level Understanding via Runtime Execution30 Oct 2025
- 2025MINED: Probing and Updating with Multimodal Time-Sensitive Knowledge for Large Multimodal Models22 Oct 2025
- 2025AutoMLGen: Navigating Fine-Grained Optimization for Coding Agents9 Oct 2025
- 2025Retrieval-Augmented Code Generation: A Survey with Focus on Repository-Level Approaches6 Oct 2025
- 2025Code2MCP: Transforming Code Repositories into MCP Services7 Sep 2025
- 2025GitTaskBench: A Benchmark for Code Agents Solving Real-World Tasks Through Code Repository Leveraging26 Aug 2025
- 2025MV-Debate: Multi-view Agent Debate with Dynamic Reflection Gating for Multimodal Harmful Content Detection in Social Media7 Aug 2025
- 2025GitTaskBench: A Benchmark for Code Agents Solving Real-World Tasks Through Code Repository Leveragingcited by 25
- 2025AutoMLGen: Navigating Fine-Grained Optimization for Coding Agentscited by 18
- 2025Code2MCP: Transforming Code Repositories into MCP Servicescited by 10
- 2026EvoFSM: Controllable Self-Evolution for Deep Research with Finite State Machinescited by 5
- 2025Gistify! Codebase-Level Understanding via Runtime Executioncited by 4
- 2026ToolRosella: Translating Code Repositories into Standardized Tools for Scientific Agentscited by 2
- 2026Agentic Agile-V: From Vibe Coding to Verified Engineering in Software and Hardware Developmentcited by 2
- 2026SW-A2-Bench: Benchmarking Autonomous Software Agent Generation for Agentic Webcited by 0
- 2026MCPEvol-Bench: Benchmarking LLM Agent Performance Across Dynamic Evolutions of MCP Serverscited by 0
- 2026MADE: Belief-Driven Dual-Agent Coordination for Autonomous Model Deploymentcited by 0
- 2026MADE: Belief-Driven Dual-Agent Coordination for Autonomous Model Deployment2 Aug 2026
- 2026MCPEvol-Bench: Benchmarking LLM Agent Performance Across Dynamic Evolutions of MCP Servers16 Jul 2026
- 2026Agentic Agile-V: From Vibe Coding to Verified Engineering in Software and Hardware Development19 May 2026
- 2026SW-A2-Bench: Benchmarking Autonomous Software Agent Generation for Agentic Web5 Apr 2026
- 2026ToolRosella: Translating Code Repositories into Standardized Tools for Scientific Agents10 Mar 2026
- 2026EvoFSM: Controllable Self-Evolution for Deep Research with Finite State Machines14 Jan 2026
- 2025Gistify! Codebase-Level Understanding via Runtime Execution30 Oct 2025
- 2025AutoMLGen: Navigating Fine-Grained Optimization for Coding Agents9 Oct 2025
- 2025Code2MCP: Transforming Code Repositories into MCP Services7 Sep 2025
- 2025GitTaskBench: A Benchmark for Code Agents Solving Real-World Tasks Through Code Repository Leveraging26 Aug 2025
- 2026Learning to Ideate for Machine Learning Engineering Agentscited by 7
- 2026HarmonyCell: Automating Single-Cell Perturbation Modeling under Semantic and Distribution Shiftscited by 4
- 2026DeepDiscovery: A Location-Inference Framework for Task-Level Repository Understandingcited by 1
- 2026AblateCell: A Reproduce-then-Ablate Agent for Virtual Cell Repositoriescited by 0
- 2026FeatLens: Feature-Guided Dynamic Code Graph Construction and Retrieval for Repository-Level Code Generationcited by 0
- 2026FeatLens: Feature-Guided Dynamic Code Graph Construction and Retrieval for Repository-Level Code Generation22 Sep 2026
- 2026DeepDiscovery: A Location-Inference Framework for Task-Level Repository Understanding22 Jun 2026
- 2026AblateCell: A Reproduce-then-Ablate Agent for Virtual Cell Repositories21 Apr 2026
- 2026HarmonyCell: Automating Single-Cell Perturbation Modeling under Semantic and Distribution Shifts2 Mar 2026
- 2026Learning to Ideate for Machine Learning Engineering Agents24 Jan 2026