Autonomous Code Evolution Meets NP-Completeness
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Software engineering coding agents
Abstract (arXiv)
Large language models (LLMs) have recently shown strong coding abilities, enabling not only static code generation but also iterative code self-evolving through agentic frameworks. Recently, AlphaEvolve citenovikov2025alphaevolve demonstrated that LLM-based coding agents can autonomously improve algorithms and surpass human experts, with scopes limited to isolated kernels spanning hundreds of lines of code. Inspired by AlphaEvolve, we present SATLUTION, the first framework to extend LLM-based code evolution to the full repository scale, encompassing hundreds of files and tens of thousands of lines of C/C++ code. Targeting Boolean Satisfiability (SAT), the canonical NP-complete problem and a cornerstone of both theory and applications. SATLUTION orchestrates LLM agents to directly evolve solver repositories under strict correctness guarantees and distributed runtime feedback, while simultaneously self-evolving its own evolution policies and rules. Starting from SAT Competition 2024 codebases and benchmark, SATLUTION evolved solvers that decisively outperformed the human-designed winners of the SAT Competition 2025, and also surpassed both 2024 and 2025 champions on the 2024 benchmarks.
Key facts. Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Software engineering coding agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 9 of its 29 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Sep 2025.
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9 of 29 references.
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Other references · 8
- 2025Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilitiescited by 3,655
- 2024LLM-SR: Scientific Equation Discovery via Programming with Large Language Modelscited by 117
- 2024Symbolic Regression with a Learned Concept Librarycited by 76
- 2023AI-assisted coding: Experiments with GPT-4cited by 43
- 2025HeuriGym: An Agentic Benchmark for LLM-Crafted Heuristics in Combinatorial Optimizationcited by 19
- 2022DeepSAT: An EDA-Driven Learning Framework for SATcited by 11
- 2018Clause Vivification by Unit Propagation in CDCL SAT Solverscited by 6
- 2025Discovering heuristics in a complex SAT solver with large language modelscited by 3
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 14.
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- 2026AIRA_2: Overcoming Bottlenecks in AI Research Agentscited by 10
- 2026Autonomous Evolution of EDA Tools: Multi-Agent Self-Evolved ABCcited by 6
- 2026Agentic Hardware Design as Repository-Level Code Evolutioncited by 6
- 2026Magellan: Autonomous Discovery of Novel Compiler Optimization Heuristics with AlphaEvolvecited by 5
- 2026Self-Improvement of Large Language Models: A Technical Overview and Future Outlookcited by 5
- 2026From Heuristic Selection to Automated Algorithm Design: LLMs Benefit from Strong Priorscited by 2
- 2026Contrastive Concept-Tree Search for LLM-Assisted Algorithm Discoverycited by 1
- 2026Scientific discovery as meta-optimization: a combinatorial optimization case studycited by 1
- 2026IC3-Evolve: Proof-/Witness-Gated Offline LLM-Driven Heuristic Evolution for IC3 Hardware Model Checkingcited by 0
- 2026TOPCELL: Topology Optimization of Standard Cell via LLMscited by 0
- 2026Learning to Solve and Optimize by Evolving Codecited by 0
- 2026Simulation-Aware In-Context Policy Improvement for LLM-Aided Analog Layout Refinementcited by 0
- 2026MacroAgent: Regularity-Aware Macro Legalization with LLM-Agent-Designed Contour Algorithms24 Aug 2026
- 2026Loreley: Repository-Scale Program Evolution with Quality-Diversity Search20 Aug 2026
- 2026Simulation-Aware In-Context Policy Improvement for LLM-Aided Analog Layout Refinement13 Aug 2026
- 2026Agentic Hardware Design as Repository-Level Code Evolution26 Jun 2026
- 2026Scientific discovery as meta-optimization: a combinatorial optimization case study25 Jun 2026
- 2026Learning to Solve and Optimize by Evolving Code29 May 2026
- 2026Autonomous Evolution of EDA Tools: Multi-Agent Self-Evolved ABC16 Apr 2026
- 2026TOPCELL: Topology Optimization of Standard Cell via LLMs15 Apr 2026
- 2026AIRA_2: Overcoming Bottlenecks in AI Research Agents27 Mar 2026
- 2026Self-Improvement of Large Language Models: A Technical Overview and Future Outlook26 Mar 2026
- 2026From Heuristic Selection to Automated Algorithm Design: LLMs Benefit from Strong Priors3 Mar 2026
- 2026Contrastive Concept-Tree Search for LLM-Assisted Algorithm Discovery3 Feb 2026
- 2026AIRA_2: Overcoming Bottlenecks in AI Research Agentscited by 10
- 2026Autonomous Evolution of EDA Tools: Multi-Agent Self-Evolved ABCcited by 6
- 2026Agentic Hardware Design as Repository-Level Code Evolutioncited by 6
- 2026MacroAgent: Regularity-Aware Macro Legalization with LLM-Agent-Designed Contour Algorithmscited by 0
- 2026MacroAgent: Regularity-Aware Macro Legalization with LLM-Agent-Designed Contour Algorithms24 Aug 2026
- 2026Agentic Hardware Design as Repository-Level Code Evolution26 Jun 2026
- 2026Autonomous Evolution of EDA Tools: Multi-Agent Self-Evolved ABC16 Apr 2026
- 2026AIRA_2: Overcoming Bottlenecks in AI Research Agents27 Mar 2026
- 2026Magellan: Autonomous Discovery of Novel Compiler Optimization Heuristics with AlphaEvolvecited by 5
- 2026From Heuristic Selection to Automated Algorithm Design: LLMs Benefit from Strong Priorscited by 2
- 2026Contrastive Concept-Tree Search for LLM-Assisted Algorithm Discoverycited by 1
- 2026Scientific discovery as meta-optimization: a combinatorial optimization case studycited by 1
- 2026IC3-Evolve: Proof-/Witness-Gated Offline LLM-Driven Heuristic Evolution for IC3 Hardware Model Checkingcited by 0
- 2026TOPCELL: Topology Optimization of Standard Cell via LLMscited by 0
- 2026Learning to Solve and Optimize by Evolving Codecited by 0
- 2026Simulation-Aware In-Context Policy Improvement for LLM-Aided Analog Layout Refinementcited by 0
- 2026Loreley: Repository-Scale Program Evolution with Quality-Diversity Searchcited by 0
- 2026Loreley: Repository-Scale Program Evolution with Quality-Diversity Search20 Aug 2026
- 2026Simulation-Aware In-Context Policy Improvement for LLM-Aided Analog Layout Refinement13 Aug 2026
- 2026Scientific discovery as meta-optimization: a combinatorial optimization case study25 Jun 2026
- 2026Learning to Solve and Optimize by Evolving Code29 May 2026
- 2026TOPCELL: Topology Optimization of Standard Cell via LLMs15 Apr 2026
- 2026From Heuristic Selection to Automated Algorithm Design: LLMs Benefit from Strong Priors3 Mar 2026
- 2026Contrastive Concept-Tree Search for LLM-Assisted Algorithm Discovery3 Feb 2026
- 2026Magellan: Autonomous Discovery of Novel Compiler Optimization Heuristics with AlphaEvolve28 Jan 2026
- 2026IC3-Evolve: Proof-/Witness-Gated Offline LLM-Driven Heuristic Evolution for IC3 Hardware Model Checking18 Jan 2026
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026Simple Baselines are Competitive with Code Evolution
- 2025CodeEvolve: an open source evolutionary coding agent for algorithmic discovery and optimization
- 2026EvoCodeBench: A Human-Performance Benchmark for Self-Evolving LLM-Driven Coding Systems
- 2026What Do Evolutionary Coding Agents Evolve?
- 2025ShinkaEvolve: Towards Open-Ended And Sample-Efficient Program Evolution
- 2025LLM-Guided Search for Deletion-Correcting Codes
- 2025CATArena: Evaluating Evolutionary Capabilities of Code Agents via Iterative Tournaments
- 2026SEVerA: Verified Synthesis of Self-Evolving Agents