mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

rStar2-Agent: Agentic Reasoning Technical Report

arXiv 2508.20722 ↗First posted 28 Aug 2025cs.CLcited by 54

On the map: LLM reasoning → Reinforcement learning for reasoning

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce rStar2-Agent, a 14B math reasoning model trained with agentic reinforcement learning to achieve frontier-level performance. Beyond current long CoT, the model demonstrates advanced cognitive behaviors, such as thinking carefully before using Python coding tools and reflecting on code execution feedback to autonomously explore, verify, and refine intermediate steps in complex problem-solving. This capability is enabled through three key innovations that makes agentic RL effective at scale: (i) an efficient RL infrastructure with a reliable Python code environment that supports high-throughput execution and mitigates the high rollout costs, enabling training on limited GPU resources (64 MI300X GPUs); (ii) GRPO-RoC, an agentic RL algorithm with a Resample-on-Correct rollout strategy that addresses the inherent environment noises from coding tools, allowing the model to reason more effectively in a code environment; (iii) An efficient agent training recipe that starts with non-reasoning SFT and progresses through multi-RL stages, yielding advanced cognitive abilities with minimal compute cost. To this end, rStar2-Agent boosts a pre-trained 14B model to state of the art in only 510 RL steps within one week, achieving average pass@1 scores of 80.6% on AIME24 and 69.8% on AIME25, surpassing DeepSeek-R1 (671B) with significantly shorter responses. Beyond mathematics, rStar2-Agent-14B also demonstrates strong generalization to alignment, scientific reasoning, and agentic tool-use tasks. Code and training recipes are available at https://github.com/microsoft/rStar.

Key facts. Cited by 54 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning for reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 33 of its 41 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Aug 2025.

Builds on

33 of 41 references.

Closest ancestors · 12

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Reasoning with Exploration: An Entropy Perspective17 Jun
  2. 2025AceReason-Nemotron 1.1: Advancing Math and Code Reasoning through SFT and RL Synergy16 Jun
  3. 2025Beyond the 80/20 Rule: High-Entropy Minority Tokens Drive Effective Reinforcement Learning for LLM Reasoning2 Jun
  4. 2025ProRL: Prolonged Reinforcement Learning Expands Reasoning Boundaries in Large Language Models30 May
  5. 2025The Entropy Mechanism of Reinforcement Learning for Reasoning Language Models28 May
  6. 2025Why Distillation can Outperform Zero-RL: The Role of Flexible Reasoning27 May
  7. 2025MiMo: Unlocking the Reasoning Potential of Language Model -- From Pretraining to Posttraining12 May
  8. 2025Does Reinforcement Learning Really Incentivize Reasoning Capacity in LLMs Beyond the Base Model?18 Apr
  9. 2025DAPO: An Open-Source LLM Reinforcement Learning System at Scale18 Mar
  10. 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning22 Jan
  11. 2025Kimi k1.5: Scaling Reinforcement Learning with LLMs22 Jan
  12. 2023Let's Verify Step by Step31 May

Other references · 21

  1. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 9,379
  2. 2023GPQA: A Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmarkcited by 2,879
  3. 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 2,057
  4. 2023Instruction-Following Evaluation for Large Language Modelscited by 1,228
  5. 2023SGLang: Efficient Execution of Structured Language Model Programscited by 1,141
  6. 2024From Crowdsourced Data to High-Quality Benchmarks: Arena-Hard and BenchBuilder Pipelinecited by 500
  7. 2025Stop Overthinking: A Survey on Efficient Reasoning for Large Language Modelscited by 464
  8. 2025ReTool: Reinforcement Learning for Strategic Tool Use in LLMscited by 392
  9. 2025ToolRL: Reward is All Tool Learning Needscited by 362
  10. 2025rStar-Math: Small LLMs Can Master Math Reasoning with Self-Evolved Deep Thinkingcited by 313
  11. 2025MathArena: Evaluating LLMs on Uncontaminated Math Competitionscited by 297
  12. 2025MiniMax-M1: Scaling Test-Time Compute Efficiently with Lightning Attentioncited by 263
9 more
  1. 2023Magicoder: Empowering Code Generation with OSS-Instructcited by 256
  2. 2025AIMO-2 Winning Solution: Building State-of-the-Art Mathematical Reasoning Models with OpenMathReasoning datasetcited by 174
  3. 2025ToRL: Scaling Tool-Integrated RLcited by 169
  4. 2025APIGen-MT: Agentic Pipeline for Multi-Turn Data Generation via Simulated Agent-Human Interplaycited by 167
  5. 2025Seed1.5-Thinking: Advancing Superb Reasoning Models with Reinforcement Learningcited by 161
  6. 2025Llama-Nemotron: Efficient Reasoning Modelscited by 158
  7. 2025Phi-4-reasoning Technical Reportcited by 151
  8. 2025Agent RL Scaling Law: Agent RL with Spontaneous Code Execution for Mathematical Problem Solvingcited by 62
  9. 2025Promoting Efficient Reasoning with Verifiable Stepwise Rewardcited by 28

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 27; 2026: 27.

54 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2025The Landscape of Agentic Reinforcement Learning for LLMs: A Surveycited by 205
  2. 2025Search Self-play: Pushing the Frontier of Agent Capability without Supervisioncited by 34
  3. 2025Demystifying Reinforcement Learning in Agentic Reasoningcited by 33
  4. 2025LoongRL: Reinforcement Learning for Advanced Reasoning over Long Contextscited by 29
  5. 2025Single-stream Policy Optimizationcited by 28
  6. 2026GenAgent: Scaling Text-to-Image Generation via Agentic Multimodal Reasoningcited by 24
  7. 2025A Survey on Agentic Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 23
  8. 2026MM-DeepResearch: A Simple and Effective Multimodal Agentic Search Baselinecited by 20
  9. 2025DeepTravel: An End-to-End Agentic Reinforcement Learning Framework for Autonomous Travel Planning Agentscited by 17
  10. 2025LoopTool: Closing the Data-Training Loop for Robust LLM Tool Callscited by 17
  11. 2025AgentMath: Empowering Mathematical Reasoning for Large Language Models via Tool-Augmented Agentcited by 17
  12. 2026Train Less, Learn More: Adaptive Efficient Rollout Optimization for Group-Based Reinforcement Learningcited by 14
38 more
  1. 2025Quantile Advantage Estimation: Stabilizing RLVR for LLM Reasoningcited by 11
  2. 2025APTBench: Benchmarking Agentic Potential of Base LLMs During Pre-Trainingcited by 11
  3. 2025AutoTool: Dynamic Tool Selection and Integration for Agentic Reasoningcited by 11
  4. 2026AI Can Learn Scientific Tastecited by 11
  5. 2025MTIR-SQL: Multi-turn Tool-Integrated Reasoning Reinforcement Learning for Text-to-SQLcited by 10
  6. 2025CuES: A Curiosity-driven and Environment-grounded Synthesis Framework for Agentic RLcited by 10
  7. 2025Beyond Pipelines: A Survey of the Paradigm Shift toward Model-Native Agentic AIcited by 8
  8. 2026DualSpec: Accelerating Deep Research Agents via Dual-Process Action Speculationcited by 8
  9. 2026Orchard: An Open-Source Agentic Modeling Frameworkcited by 8
  10. 2025Planner-R1: Reward Shaping Enables Efficient Agentic RL with Smaller LLMscited by 7
  11. 2025Achieving Olympiad-Level Geometry Large Language Model Agent via Complexity Boosting Reinforcement Learningcited by 7
  12. 2026Evolving from Tool User to Creator via Training-Free Experience Reuse in Multimodal Reasoningcited by 7
  13. 2025MindWatcher: Toward Smarter Multimodal Tool-Integrated Reasoningcited by 6
  14. 2025Learning to Reason for Hallucination Span Detectioncited by 5
  15. 2025AlphaApollo: A System for Deep Agentic Reasoningcited by 5
  16. 2025Can GRPO Help LLMs Transcend Their Pretraining Origin?cited by 5
  17. 2026ASTER: Agentic Scaling with Tool-integrated Extended Reasoningcited by 5
  18. 2026Agent-Omit: Adaptive Context Omission for Efficient LLM Agentscited by 5
  19. 2025VL Norm: Rethink Loss Aggregation in RLVRcited by 4
  20. 2025MarsRL: Advancing Multi-Agent Reasoning System via Reinforcement Learning with Agentic Pipeline Parallelismcited by 4
  21. 2025Intern-S1-MO: Long-horizon Reasoning Agent for Olympiad?Level Mathematical Problem Solvingcited by 4
  22. 2026CLEANER: Self-Purified Trajectories Boost Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 4
  23. 2026Training LLMs for Divide-and-Conquer Reasoning Elevates Test-Time Scalabilitycited by 4
  24. 2026Agent Explorative Policy Optimization for Multimodal Agentic Reasoningcited by 4
  25. 2025Deep Self-Evolving Reasoningcited by 3
  26. 2026Adaptive Layerwise Perturbation: Unifying Off-Policy Corrections for LLM RLcited by 3
  27. 2026T2PO: Uncertainty-Guided Exploration Control for Stable Multi-Turn Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 3
  28. 2026CP-Agent: A Calibrated Risk-Controlled Agent for Feedback-Driven Competitive Programmingcited by 3
  29. 2026ToolVerse: Unlocking Massive Environments and Long-Horizon Tasks for Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 3
  30. 2025Thinking by Doing: Building Efficient World Model Reasoning in LLMs via Multi-turn Interactioncited by 2
  31. 2026Teaching Thinking Models to Reason with Tools: A Full-Pipeline Recipe for Tool-Integrated Reasoningcited by 2
  32. 2025AMAP Agentic Planning Technical Reportcited by 1
  33. 2026SHAPE: Stage-aware Hierarchical Advantage via Potential Estimation for LLM Reasoningcited by 1
  34. 2026Fine-Tuning Small Reasoning Models for Quantum Field Theorycited by 1
  35. 2026JigsawRL: Assembling RL Pipelines for Efficient LLM Post-Trainingcited by 1
  36. 2026Every Step Counts: Step-Level Credit Assignment for Tool-Integrated Text-to-SQLcited by 1
  37. 2026Teaching Language Models to Think in Codecited by 1
  38. 2026Implicit Hierarchical GRPO: Decoupling Tool Invocation from Execution for Tool-Integrated Mathematical Reasoningcited by 1

50 most cited of 54 All 54 (JSON)

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  1. 2026Exploring Reasoning Reward Model for Agents
  2. 2025Agentic-R1: Distilled Dual-Strategy Reasoning
  3. 2025Motif-2-12.7B-Reasoning: A Practitioner's Guide to RL Training Recipes
  4. 2025Compass-Thinker-7B Technical Report
  5. 2026Code2Math: Can Your Code Agent Effectively Evolve Math Problems Through Exploration?
  6. 2026Agent^2 RL-Bench: Can LLM Agents Engineer Agentic RL Post-Training?
  7. 2026Nanbeige4.2-3B: Unlocking Agentic Capabilities in a Compact Model
  8. 2025PRO-V-R1: Reasoning Enhanced Programming Agent for RTL Verification