# Adaptive Coopetition: Leveraging Coarse Verifier Signals for Resilient Multi-Agent LLM Reasoning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18179 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18179/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Reasoning for agents, planning and code, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 2 of its 26 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Oct 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Reasoning for agents, planning and code](https://mlsanity.com/lr/reasoning-for-agents-planning-and-code/)
- LLM agents and tool use / [General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/agents/general-llm-agent-frameworks-and-benchmarks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14168/) (2021)
- [GPT-4o System Card](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21276/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [AgentArk: Distilling Multi-Agent Intelligence into a Single LLM Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.03955/) (2026)
- [Multi-Agent Constraint Factorization Reveals Latent Invariant Solution Structure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.15077/) (2026)
- [VeriBound: PAC-Bayesian Generalization Bounds for Process Reward Models Trained with Formal Verification Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.20740/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Inference-time computation is a critical yet challenging paradigm for enhancing the reasoning performance of large language models (LLMs). While existing strategies improve reasoning stability and consistency, they suffer from notable limitations: self-correction often reinforces the model's initial biases, and Multi-Agent Collaboration (MAC) often fails due to the lack of efficient coordination mechanisms, leading to collective errors. Although high-performing verifiers can detect reasoning errors, making them reliable requires substantial training. To address these challenges, we introduce a novel inference-time framework, Adaptive Coopetition (AdCo), in which LLM agents utilize an adaptive, UCB-based "coopetition" mechanism. At each round, agents leverage coarse verifier signals to determine whether to collaborate or compete, and iteratively refine their reasoning based on peer feedback. Without relying on high-performance verifiers, our adaptive strategy achieves significant performance gains on mathematical reasoning benchmarks, yielding a 20% relative improvement over baselines on the more challenging dataset. Our approach remains robust and consistent in terms of accuracy under different sample sizes and configurations. This adaptive, signal-guided "coopetition" framework enhances reasoning robustness by leveraging both model knowledge diversity and reasoning trace measures, while also promoting uncertainty-driven exploration, especially when participants have comparable capabilities. From this perspective, our work offers a fresh lens on inference-time computation and paves the way for more resilient multi-agent LLM systems. Our code is available at: https://github.com/AdCo-Research/adaptive-coopetition.