# ReasoningFlow: Semantic Structure of Complex Reasoning Traces

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.02532 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02532/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Test-time compute and efficient thinking, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 12 of its 23 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Jun 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Test-time compute and efficient thinking](https://mlsanity.com/lr/test-time-compute-and-efficient-thinking/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.12948/) (2025)
- [A Survey on LLM-as-a-Judge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15594/) (2024)
- [Stop Overthinking: A Survey on Efficient Reasoning for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16419/) (2025)
- [Cognitive Behaviors that Enable Self-Improving Reasoners, or, Four Habits of Highly Effective STaRs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01307/) (2025)
- [Demystifying Long Chain-of-Thought Reasoning in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.03373/) (2025)
- [Thoughts Are All Over the Place: On the Underthinking of o1-Like LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.18585/) (2025)
- [A Survey of Efficient Reasoning for Large Reasoning Models: Language, Multimodality, and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21614/) (2025)
- [DeepSeek-R1 Thoughtology: Let's think about LLM Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07128/) (2025)
- [Evaluating Step-by-step Reasoning Traces: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12289/) (2025)
- [Clingo = ASP + Control: Preliminary Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.3694/) (2014)
- [Premise-Augmented Reasoning Chains Improve Error Identification in Math reasoning with LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02362/) (2025)
- [Scaling Evaluation-time Compute with Reasoning Models as Evaluators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19877/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Where Did This Sentence Come From? Tracing Provenance in LLM Reasoning Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.20908/) (2025)
- [Characterizing, Evaluating, and Optimizing Complex Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.08498/) (2026)
- [ReasonOps: Operator Segmentation for LLM Reasoning Traces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.29192/) (2026)
- [ReasoningFlow: Discourse Structures for Understanding LLM Reasoning Traces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05402/) (2026)
- [FaithformBench: Benchmarking Faithfulness of Mathematical Chain-of-Thought Autoformalisation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.10916/) (2026)
- [Modeling Hierarchical Thinking in Large Reasoning Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.22437/) (2025)
- [KisMATH: Do LLMs Have Knowledge of Implicit Structures in Mathematical Reasoning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11408/) (2025)
- [Reasoning Consensus: Structural Ensembling of LLM Reasoning via Weighted DAG Aggregation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.27783/) (2026)
- [Beyond Input Understanding: Diagnosing Multilingual Mathematical Reasoning with Directed Acyclic Trace Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.27715/) (2026)
- [ThinkProbe: Beyond Accuracy -- Structural Profiling of Open-Ended LLM Reasoning Traces via Non-Generative Thought Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29067/) (2026)
- [LCoT-GV: Graph Attention Networks for Verifying Long Reasoning Chains in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.30679/) (2026)
- [SearchAtlas: Analyzing Agentic Search Strategies via Evidential Query Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.10901/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large reasoning models (LRMs) generate complex reasoning traces with planning, reflection, verification, and backtracking. In this work, we introduce ReasoningFlow, a unified schema for analyzing the semantic structures of these complex traces. ReasoningFlow parses traces into directed acyclic graphs, enabling the characterization of distinct reasoning patterns as subgraph structures. This human-interpretable representation offers promising applications in understanding, evaluating, and enhancing the reasoning processes of LRMs.