Maestro: Joint Graph & Config Optimization for Reliable AI Agents
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks
Abstract (arXiv)
Building reliable LLM agents requires decisions at two levels: the graph (which modules exist and how information flows) and the configuration of each node (models, prompts, tools, control knobs). Most existing optimizers tune configurations while holding the graph fixed, leaving structural failure modes unaddressed. We introduce Maestro, a framework-agnostic holistic optimizer for LLM agents that jointly searches over graphs and configurations to maximize agent quality, subject to explicit rollout/token budgets. Beyond numeric metrics, Maestro leverages reflective textual feedback from traces to prioritize edits, improving sample efficiency and targeting specific failure modes. On the IFBench and HotpotQA benchmarks, Maestro consistently surpasses leading prompt optimizers--MIPROv2, GEPA, and GEPA+Merge--by an average of 12%, 4.9%, and 4.86%, respectively; even when restricted to prompt-only optimization, it still leads by 9.65%, 2.37%, and 2.41%. Maestro achieves these results with far fewer rollouts than GEPA. We further show large gains on two applications (interviewer & RAG agents), highlighting that joint graph & configuration search addresses structural failure modes that prompt tuning alone cannot fix.
Key facts. Cited by 9 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 12 of its 20 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Sep 2025.
Builds on
12 of 20 references.
Closest ancestors · 3
Same direction, newest first
- 2025Multi-Agent Design: Optimizing Agents with Better Prompts and Topologies4 Feb
- 2024AgentScope: A Flexible yet Robust Multi-Agent Platform21 Feb
- 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents22 Aug
Other references · 9
- 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 9,379
- 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,276
- 2018HotpotQA: A Dataset for Diverse, Explainable Multi-hop Question Answeringcited by 3,754
- 2023MemGPT: Towards LLMs as Operating Systemscited by 1,389
- 2023DSPy: Compiling Declarative Language Model Calls into Self-Improving Pipelinescited by 832
- 2025GEPA: Reflective Prompt Evolution Can Outperform Reinforcement Learningcited by 542
- 2024Optimizing Instructions and Demonstrations for Multi-Stage Language Model Programscited by 291
- 2023Auto-GPT for Online Decision Making: Benchmarks and Additional Opinionscited by 255
- 2025Generalizing Verifiable Instruction Followingcited by 194
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 3; 2026: 6.
9 papers.
- 2026From Failed Trajectories to Reliable LLM Agents: Diagnosing and Repairing Harness Flawscited by 29
- 2026From Static Templates to Dynamic Runtime Graphs: A Survey of Workflow Optimization for LLM Agentscited by 24
- 2026Do Agent Optimizers Compound? A Continual-Learning Evaluation on Terminal-Bench 2.0cited by 6
- 2026JTPRO: A Joint Tool-Prompt Reflective Optimization Framework for Language Agentscited by 4
- 2025TextBO: Bayesian Optimization in Language Space for Eval-Efficient Self-Improving AIcited by 3
- 2025MedDCR: Learning to Design Agentic Workflows for Medical Codingcited by 3
- 2025On the Difficulty of Selecting Few-Shot Examples for Effective LLM-based Vulnerability Detectioncited by 0
- 2026Automated Instruction Revision (AIR): A Structured Comparison of Task Adaptation Strategies for LLMcited by 0
- 2026Diagnosis-Driven Automatic Repair for Agentic Workflow via Symbolic Inferencecited by 0
- 2026Do Agent Optimizers Compound? A Continual-Learning Evaluation on Terminal-Bench 2.015 Jul 2026
- 2026Diagnosis-Driven Automatic Repair for Agentic Workflow via Symbolic Inference3 Jul 2026
- 2026From Failed Trajectories to Reliable LLM Agents: Diagnosing and Repairing Harness Flaws4 Jun 2026
- 2026JTPRO: A Joint Tool-Prompt Reflective Optimization Framework for Language Agents20 Apr 2026
- 2026Automated Instruction Revision (AIR): A Structured Comparison of Task Adaptation Strategies for LLM10 Apr 2026
- 2026From Static Templates to Dynamic Runtime Graphs: A Survey of Workflow Optimization for LLM Agents23 Mar 2026
- 2025MedDCR: Learning to Design Agentic Workflows for Medical Coding17 Nov 2025
- 2025TextBO: Bayesian Optimization in Language Space for Eval-Efficient Self-Improving AI15 Nov 2025
- 2025On the Difficulty of Selecting Few-Shot Examples for Effective LLM-based Vulnerability Detection31 Oct 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026MAESTRO: Multi-Agent Evaluation Suite for Testing, Reliability, and Observability
- 2026HarnessOpt-Bench: Evaluating LLMs at Harness Optimization
- 2025Generalizing Test-time Compute-optimal Scaling as an Optimizable Graph
- 2025Optimizing Model Selection for Compound AI Systems
- 2026TeamTR: Trust-Region Fine-Tuning for Multi-Agent LLM Coordination
- 2026AgentHPOBench: A Benchmark For Evaluating LLM Agents as Sequential Hyperparameter Optimizers
- 2024Language Agents as Optimizable Graphs
- 2026GraSP: Graph-Structured Skill Compositions for LLM Agents