mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Maestro: Self-Improving Text-to-Image Generation via Agent Orchestration

arXiv 2509.10704 ↗First posted 12 Sep 2025cs.AI cs.CVcited by 19

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Multimodal and embodied agents

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Text-to-image (T2I) models, while offering immense creative potential, are highly reliant on human intervention, posing significant usability challenges that often necessitate manual, iterative prompt engineering over often underspecified prompts. This paper introduces Maestro, a novel self-evolving image generation system that enables T2I models to autonomously self-improve generated images through iterative evolution of prompts, using only an initial prompt. Maestro incorporates two key innovations: 1) self-critique, where specialized multimodal LLM (MLLM) agents act as 'critics' to identify weaknesses in generated images, correct for under-specification, and provide interpretable edit signals, which are then integrated by a 'verifier' agent while preserving user intent; and 2) self-evolution, utilizing MLLM-as-a-judge for head-to-head comparisons between iteratively generated images, eschewing problematic images, and evolving creative prompt candidates that align with user intents. Extensive experiments on complex T2I tasks using black-box models demonstrate that Maestro significantly improves image quality over initial prompts and state-of-the-art automated methods, with effectiveness scaling with more advanced MLLM components. This work presents a robust, interpretable, and effective pathway towards self-improving T2I generation.

Key facts. Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 39 of its 47 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 12 Sep 2025.

Builds on

39 of 47 references.

References · 39

  1. 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,971
  2. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,585
  3. 2022Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understandingcited by 6,355
  4. 2024GPT-4o System Cardcited by 4,588
  5. 2017Deep reinforcement learning from human preferencescited by 3,912
  6. 2024Gemini 1.5: Unlocking multimodal understanding across millions of tokens of contextcited by 3,224
  7. 2021CLIPScore: A Reference-free Evaluation Metric for Image Captioningcited by 2,424
  8. 2019Fine-Tuning Language Models from Human Preferencescited by 2,150
  9. 2021Calibrate Before Use: Improving Few-Shot Performance of Language Modelscited by 1,392
  10. 2022Scaling Autoregressive Models for Content-Rich Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,295
  11. 2022Large Language Models Are Human-Level Prompt Engineerscited by 1,045
  12. 2023ImageReward: Learning and Evaluating Human Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,045
27 more
  1. 2023Pick-a-Pic: An Open Dataset of User Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 977
  2. 2023Large Language Models as Optimizerscited by 864
  3. 2023Can Large Language Models Be an Alternative to Human Evaluations?cited by 734
  4. 2023Automatic Prompt Optimization with "Gradient Descent" and Beam Searchcited by 653
  5. 2023RLAIF vs. RLHF: Scaling Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback with AI Feedbackcited by 625
  6. 2023Large Language Models Are Not Robust Multiple Choice Selectorscited by 486
  7. 2023DPOK: Reinforcement Learning for Fine-tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 450
  8. 2023TIFA: Accurate and Interpretable Text-to-Image Faithfulness Evaluation with Question Answeringcited by 428
  9. 2022DiffusionDB: A Large-scale Prompt Gallery Dataset for Text-to-Image Generative Modelscited by 379
  10. 2024TextGrad: Automatic "Differentiation" via Textcited by 273
  11. 2022Optimizing Prompts for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 207
  12. 2025WISE: A World Knowledge-Informed Semantic Evaluation for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 204
  13. 2023Davidsonian Scene Graph: Improving Reliability in Fine-grained Evaluation for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 171
  14. 2024Generative Reward Modelscited by 148
  15. 2023What You See is What You Read? Improving Text-Image Alignment Evaluationcited by 108
  16. 2023Batch Calibration: Rethinking Calibration for In-Context Learning and Prompt Engineeringcited by 94
  17. 2024Improving Text-to-Image Consistency via Automatic Prompt Optimizationcited by 90
  18. 2023Self-Evaluation Improves Selective Generation in Large Language Modelscited by 76
  19. 2024Dynamic Prompt Optimizing for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 45
  20. 2023Language Models as Black-Box Optimizers for Vision-Language Modelscited by 36
  21. 2024On Discrete Prompt Optimization for Diffusion Modelscited by 29
  22. 2024Fairer Preferences Elicit Improved Human-Aligned Large Language Model Judgmentscited by 25
  23. 2024Proactive Agents for Multi-Turn Text-to-Image Generation Under Uncertaintycited by 25
  24. 2023Prompt Expansion for Adaptive Text-to-Image Generationcited by 24
  25. 2023BeautifulPrompt: Towards Automatic Prompt Engineering for Text-to-Image Synthesiscited by 18
  26. 2025Learning to Sample Effective and Diverse Prompts for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 17
  27. 2024What makes a good metric? Evaluating automatic metrics for text-to-image consistencycited by 12

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 4; 2026: 15.

19 papers.

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  1. 2025VISTA: A Test-Time Self-Improving Video Generation Agentcited by 31
  2. 2026GEMS: Agent-Native Multimodal Generation with Memory and Skillscited by 21
  3. 2026GenEvolve: Self-Evolving Image Generation Agents via Tool-Orchestrated Visual Experience Distillationcited by 19
  4. 2026coDrawAgents: A Multi-Agent Dialogue Framework for Compositional Image Generationcited by 7
  5. 2025CRAFT: Continuous Reasoning and Agentic Feedback Tuning for Multimodal Text-to-Image Generationcited by 6
  6. 2026A2RD: Agentic Autoregressive Diffusion for Long Video Consistencycited by 6
  7. 2025Guiding What Not to Generate: Automated Negative Prompting for Text-Image Alignmentcited by 5
  8. 2026GenRouter: Unified Workflow Routing for Agentic Image Generationcited by 5
  9. 2026Generation Navigator: A State-Aware Agentic Framework for Image Generationcited by 3
  10. 2026MemoGen: Can Past Experience Improve Future Text-to-Image Generation?cited by 3
  11. 2025LINA: Learning INterventions Adaptively for Physical Alignment and Generalization in Diffusion Modelscited by 1
  12. 2026Visual Persuasion: What Influences Decisions of Vision-Language Models?cited by 1
7 more
  1. 2026Agentic Visual Generation: From Generative Models to Agentic Controlcited by 1
  2. 2026Reasoning Arena: Trace Tournaments When Verifiable Rewards Fall Shortcited by 0
  3. 2026APEX: Automated Prompt Engineering eXpert with Dynamic Data Selectioncited by 0
  4. 2026Semantic Browsing: Controllable Diversity for Image Generationcited by 0
  5. 2026Reasoning with Image Generationcited by 0
  6. 2026AutoRef: Harness Optimization for Agentic Multi-Reference Image Generationcited by 0
  7. 2026Look Back to Move Forward: Learning to Revisit for Agentic Compositional Image Generationcited by 0

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  1. 2025Draw ALL Your Imagine: A Holistic Benchmark and Agent Framework for Complex Instruction-based Image Generation
  2. 2025T2I-Copilot: A Training-Free Multi-Agent Text-to-Image System for Enhanced Prompt Interpretation and Interactive Generation
  3. 2024Batch-Instructed Gradient for Prompt Evolution:Systematic Prompt Optimization for Enhanced Text-to-Image Synthesis
  4. 2025PromptEnhancer: A Simple Approach to Enhance Text-to-Image Models via Chain-of-Thought Prompt Rewriting
  5. 2026AtelierEval: Agentic Evaluation of Humans & LLMs as Text-to-Image Prompters
  6. 2025PromptSculptor: Multi-Agent Based Text-to-Image Prompt Optimization
  7. 2025ImAgent: A Unified Multimodal Agent Framework for Test-Time Scalable Image Generation
  8. 2024PromptCharm: Text-to-Image Generation through Multi-modal Prompting and Refinement