mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

The Tool Decathlon: Benchmarking Language Agents for Diverse, Realistic, and Long-Horizon Task Execution

arXiv 2510.25726 ↗First posted 29 Oct 2025cs.CL cs.AIcited by 85

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks

Abstract (arXiv)

Real-world language agents must handle complex, multi-step workflows across diverse Apps. For instance, an agent may manage emails by coordinating with calendars and file systems, or monitor a production database to detect anomalies and generate reports following an operating manual. However, existing language agent benchmarks often focus on narrow domains or simplified tasks that lack the diversity, realism, and long-horizon complexity required to evaluate agents' real-world performance. To address this gap, we introduce the Tool Decathlon (dubbed as Toolathlon), a benchmark for language agents offering diverse Apps and tools, realistic environment setup, and reliable execution-based evaluation. Toolathlon spans 32 software applications and 604 tools, ranging from everyday platforms such as Google Calendar and Notion to professional ones like WooCommerce, Kubernetes, and BigQuery. Most of the tools are based on a high-quality set of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that we may have revised or implemented ourselves. Unlike prior works, which primarily ensure functional realism but offer limited environment state diversity, we provide realistic initial environment states from real software, such as Canvas courses with dozens of students or real financial spreadsheets. This benchmark includes 108 manually sourced or crafted tasks in total, requiring interacting with multiple Apps over around 20 turns on average to complete. Each task is strictly verifiable through dedicated evaluation scripts. Comprehensive evaluation of SOTA models highlights their significant shortcomings: the best-performing model, Claude-4.5-Sonnet, achieves only a 38.6% success rate with 20.2 tool calling turns on average, while the top open-weights model DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp reaches 20.1%. We expect Toolathlon to drive the development of more capable language agents for real-world, long-horizon task execution.

Key facts. Cited by 85 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 18 of its 27 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Oct 2025.

Builds on

18 of 27 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024TheAgentCompany: Benchmarking LLM Agents on Consequential Real World Tasks18 Dec
  2. 2024τ-bench: A Benchmark for Tool-Agent-User Interaction in Real-World Domains17 Jun
  3. 2024AgentBoard: An Analytical Evaluation Board of Multi-turn LLM Agents24 Jan
  4. 2023AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agents7 Aug

Other references · 14

  1. 2025Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilitiescited by 3,796
  2. 2023SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?cited by 3,373
  3. 2023Gorilla: Large Language Model Connected with Massive APIscited by 1,332
  4. 2024OSWorld: Benchmarking Multimodal Agents for Open-Ended Tasks in Real Computer Environmentscited by 1,195
  5. 2025BrowseComp: A Simple Yet Challenging Benchmark for Browsing Agentscited by 647
  6. 2024AppWorld: A Controllable World of Apps and People for Benchmarking Interactive Coding Agentscited by 401
  7. 2025MCP-Universe: Benchmarking Large Language Models with Real-World Model Context Protocol Serverscited by 96
  8. 2025ACEBench: Who Wins the Match Point in Tool Usage?cited by 71
  9. 2025MCP-RADAR: A Multi-Dimensional Benchmark for Evaluating Tool Use Capabilities in Large Language Modelscited by 48
  10. 2025LiveMCPBench: Can Agents Navigate an Ocean of MCP Tools?cited by 48
  11. 2025MCPWorld: A Unified Benchmarking Testbed for API, GUI, and Hybrid Computer Use Agentscited by 38
  12. 2025MCPEval: Automatic MCP-based Deep Evaluation for AI Agent Modelscited by 36
2 more
  1. 2025MCP-AgentBench: Evaluating Real-World Language Agent Performance with MCP-Mediated Toolscited by 32
  2. 2025LiveMCP-101: Stress Testing and Diagnosing MCP-enabled Agents on Challenging Queriescited by 17

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 2; 2026: 83.

85 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 2026DeepSeek-V4: Towards Highly Efficient Million-Token Context Intelligencecited by 1,040
  2. 2025DeepSeek-V3.2: Pushing the Frontier of Open Large Language Modelscited by 815
  3. 2026GLM-5: from Vibe Coding to Agentic Engineeringcited by 587
  4. 2026Kimi K3: Open Frontier Intelligencecited by 138
  5. 2026SkillX: Automatically Constructing Skill Knowledge Bases for Agentscited by 76
  6. 2026Claw-Eval: Towards Trustworthy Evaluation of Autonomous Agentscited by 64
  7. 2026Agent-World: Scaling Real-World Environment Synthesis for Evolving General Agent Intelligencecited by 54
  8. 2026MCP-Atlas: A Large-Scale Benchmark for Tool-Use Competency with Real MCP Serverscited by 53
  9. 2026OSWorld 2.0: Benchmarking Computer Use Agents on Long-Horizon Real-World Taskscited by 40
  10. 2026Unsafer in Many Turns: Benchmarking and Defending Multi-Turn Safety Risks in Tool-Using Agentscited by 30
  11. 2026SkillCraft: Can LLM Agents Learn to Use Tools Skillfully?cited by 30
  12. 2026SkillRevise: Improving LLM-Authored Agent Skills via Trace-Conditioned Skill Revisioncited by 30
38 more
  1. 2026AgencyBench: Benchmarking the Frontiers of Autonomous Agents in 1M-Token Real-World Contextscited by 28
  2. 2026Qwen-AgentWorld: Language World Models for General Agentscited by 28
  3. 2026AgentVista: Evaluating Multimodal Agents in Ultra-Challenging Realistic Visual Scenarioscited by 23
  4. 2025Adaptation of Agentic AI: A Survey of Post-Training, Memory, and Skillscited by 22
  5. 2026PhysicianBench: Evaluating LLM Agents in Real-World EHR Environmentscited by 21
  6. 2026Uncertainty Quantification in LLM Agents: Foundations, Emerging Challenges, and Opportunitiescited by 20
  7. 2026LOCA-bench: Benchmarking Language Agents Under Controllable and Extreme Context Growthcited by 14
  8. 2026The Evolution of Tool Use in LLM Agents: From Single-Tool Call to Multi-Tool Orchestrationcited by 14
  9. 2026DIVE: Scaling Diversity in Agentic Task Synthesis for Generalizable Tool Usecited by 13
  10. 2026Automated Benchmark Auditing for AI Agents and Large Language Modelscited by 12
  11. 2026PlanBench-XL: Evaluating Long-Horizon Planning of LLM Tool-Use Agents in Large-Scale Tool Ecosystemscited by 11
  12. 2026TRIP-Bench: A Benchmark for Long-Horizon Interactive Agents in Real-World Scenarioscited by 10
  13. 2026PhGPO: Pheromone-Guided Policy Optimization for Long-Horizon Tool Planningcited by 9
  14. 2026TUA-Bench: A Benchmark for General-Purpose Terminal-Use Agentscited by 9
  15. 2026EnterpriseBench Corecraft: Training Generalizable Agents on High-Fidelity RL Environmentscited by 8
  16. 2026CHI-Bench: Can AI Agents Automate End-to-End, Long-Horizon, Policy-Rich Healthcare Workflows?cited by 8
  17. 2026CoffeeBench: Benchmarking Long-Horizon LLM Agents in Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Economiescited by 8
  18. 2026OccuBench: Evaluating AI Agents on Real-World Professional Tasks via Language Environment Simulationcited by 7
  19. 2026Capable but Unreliable: Canonical Path Deviation as a Causal Mechanism of Agent Failure in Long-Horizon Taskscited by 6
  20. 2026EigenData: A Self-Evolving Multi-Agent Platform for Function-Calling Data Synthesis, Auditing, and Repaircited by 6
  21. 2026CocoaBench: Evaluating Unified Digital Agents in the Wildcited by 6
  22. 2026AsyncTool: Evaluating the Asynchronous Function Calling Capability under Multi-Task Scenarioscited by 5
  23. 2026STT-Arena: A More Realistic Environment for Tool-Using with Spatio-Temporal Dynamicscited by 4
  24. 2026PhoneBuddy: Training Open Models for Agentic Phone Usecited by 4
  25. 2026AgentStream: How Well Do Self-Evolving LLM Agents Perform Under Streaming Tasks?cited by 4
  26. 2026OneDayAgent: Towards a Long-Horizon Harness for Autonomous Agentscited by 4
  27. 2026C-World: A Computer Use Agent Environment Creatorcited by 3
  28. 2026The Agent's First Day: Benchmarking Learning, Exploration, and Scheduling in the Workplace Scenarioscited by 3
  29. 2026daVinci-Agency: Unlocking Long-Horizon Agency Data-Efficientlycited by 3
  30. 2026Irminsul: MLA-Native Position-Independent Caching for Agentic LLM Servingcited by 3
  31. 2026RS-Claw: Progressive Active Tool Exploration via Hierarchical Skill Trees for Remote Sensing Agentscited by 3
  32. 2026MCP-Persona: Benchmarking LLM Agents on Real-World Personal Applications via Environment Simulationcited by 3
  33. 2026ComplexConstraints and Beyond: Expert Rubrics for RLVRcited by 3
  34. 2026TokenPilot: Cache-Efficient Context Management for LLM Agentscited by 3
  35. 2026MM-ToolSandBox: A Unified Framework for Evaluating Visual Tool-Calling Agentscited by 3
  36. 2026EarlyEval: Cheaper Agent Evaluation via Early Outcome Predictioncited by 3
  37. 2026ARTIS: Agentic Risk-Aware Test-Time Scaling via Iterative Simulationcited by 2
  38. 2026Trust No Tool: Evaluating and Defending LLM Agents under Untrusted Tool Feedbackcited by 2

50 most cited of 85 All 85 (JSON)

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026E-Bench: Benchmarking Multi-Step Tool-Use Agents in Real-World Product Scenarios
  2. 2026BabelArena: A Large-Scale Multilingual Benchmark for LLM Agents
  3. 2024ShortcutsBench: A Large-Scale Real-world Benchmark for API-based Agents
  4. 2026AgentGym2: Benchmarking Large Language Model Agents in De-Idealized Real-World Environments
  5. 2024Windows Agent Arena: Evaluating Multi-Modal OS Agents at Scale
  6. 2025MCP-Bench: Benchmarking Tool-Using LLM Agents with Complex Real-World Tasks via MCP Servers
  7. 2025OdysseyBench: Evaluating LLM Agents on Long-Horizon Complex Office Application Workflows
  8. 2026WorldBench: Culturally Grounded Benchmark for Multilingual Agents