# Reflecting with Two Voices: A Co-Adaptive Dual-Strategy Framework for LLM-Based Agent Decision Making

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08366 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.08366/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agentic RAG, agents and memory, one of 15 directions in Retrieval-augmented generation.
- Builds on 11 of its 20 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Dec 2025.

## Placed in

- Retrieval-augmented generation / [Agentic RAG, agents and memory](https://mlsanity.com/rag/agentic-rag-agents-and-memory/)
- 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, 11 of 11)

- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10601/) (2023)
- [ToolLLM: Facilitating Large Language Models to Master 16000+ Real-world APIs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.16789/) (2023)
- [Mind2Web: Towards a Generalist Agent for the Web](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.06070/) (2023)
- [ALFWorld: Aligning Text and Embodied Environments for Interactive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.03768/) (2020)
- [When Can LLMs Actually Correct Their Own Mistakes? A Critical Survey of Self-Correction of LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01297/) (2024)
- [Synapse: Trajectory-as-Exemplar Prompting with Memory for Computer Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.07863/) (2023)
- [ADaPT: As-Needed Decomposition and Planning with Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.05772/) (2023)
- [TRAD: Enhancing LLM Agents with Step-Wise Thought Retrieval and Aligned Decision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06221/) (2024)
- [Hierarchical Planning for Complex Tasks with Knowledge Graph-RAG and Symbolic Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04578/) (2025)
- [In-Context Policy Adaptation via Cross-Domain Skill Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04535/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Why Do LLM-based Web Agents Fail? A Hierarchical Planning Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.14248/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language model (LLM) agents often rely on external demonstrations or retrieval-augmented planning, leading to brittleness, poor generalization, and high computational overhead. Inspired by human problem-solving, we propose DuSAR (Dual-Strategy Agent with Reflecting) -- a demonstration-free framework that enables a single frozen LLM to perform co-adaptive reasoning via two complementary strategies: a high-level holistic plan and a context-grounded local policy. These strategies interact through a lightweight reflection mechanism, where the agent continuously assesses progress via a Strategy Fitness Score and dynamically revises its global plan when stuck or refines it upon meaningful advancement, mimicking human metacognitive behavior. On both simulated household (ALFWorld) and real-world web (Mind2Web) environments, DuSAR achieves state-of-the-art performance using only open-source LLMs, substantially outperforming all prior methods without any demonstrations or fine-tuning. Remarkably, it also reduces per-step token consumption by a large margin while maintaining strong task success. Ablation studies confirm the necessity of dual-strategy coordination. Moreover, optional integration of expert demonstrations further boosts performance, highlighting DuSAR's flexibility and compatibility with external knowledge.
