mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

SCRIBE: Structured Mid-Level Supervision for Tool-Using Language Models

arXiv 2601.03555 ↗First posted 7 Jan 2026cs.AIcited by 20

On the map: LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation → Process reward models for reasoning

Abstract (arXiv)

Training reliable tool-augmented agents remains a significant challenge, largely due to the difficulty of credit assignment in multi-step reasoning. While process-level reward models offer a promising direction, existing LLM-based judges often produce noisy and inconsistent signals because they lack fine-grained, task-specific rubrics to distinguish high-level planning from low-level execution. In this work, we introduce SCRIBE (Skill-Conditioned Reward with Intermediate Behavioral Evaluation), a reinforcement learning framework that intervenes at a novel mid-level abstraction. SCRIBE grounds reward modeling in a curated library of skill prototypes, transforming open-ended LLM evaluation into a constrained verification problem. By routing each subgoal to a corresponding prototype, the reward model is equipped with precise, structured rubrics that substantially reduce reward variance. Experimental results show that SCRIBE achieves state-of-the-art performance across a range of reasoning and tool-use benchmarks. In particular, it improves the AIME25 accuracy of a Qwen3-4B model from 43.3% to 63.3%, and significantly increases success rates in complex multi-turn tool interactions. Further analysis of training dynamics reveals a co-evolution across abstraction levels, where mastery of mid-level skills consistently precedes the emergence of effective high-level planning behaviors. Finally, we demonstrate that SCRIBE is additive to low-level tool optimizations, providing a scalable and complementary pathway toward more autonomous and reliable tool-using agents.

Key facts. Cited by 20 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Process reward models for reasoning, one of 10 directions in LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation. Builds on 50 of its 94 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Jan 2026.

Builds on

50 of 94 references.

Closest ancestors · 7

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025ToolRM: Towards Agentic Tool-Use Reward Modeling30 Oct
  2. 2025ToolRM: Outcome Reward Models for Tool-Calling Large Language Models15 Sep
  3. 2025One Token to Fool LLM-as-a-Judge11 Jul
  4. 2025Process Reward Models That Think23 Apr
  5. 2025Process Reward Models for LLM Agents: Practical Framework and Directions14 Feb
  6. 2025The Lessons of Developing Process Reward Models in Mathematical Reasoning13 Jan
  7. 2024Rewarding Progress: Scaling Automated Process Verifiers for LLM Reasoning10 Oct

Other references · 43

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  2. 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,072
  3. 2023Let's Verify Step by Stepcited by 3,598
  4. 2025Understanding R1-Zero-Like Training: A Critical Perspectivecited by 1,276
  5. 2024From Generation to Judgment: Opportunities and Challenges of LLM-as-a-judgecited by 480
  6. 2025ToolRL: Reward is All Tool Learning Needscited by 342
  7. 2024Large Language Models for Data Annotation and Synthesis: A Surveycited by 201
  8. 2025The Landscape of Agentic Reinforcement Learning for LLMs: A Surveycited by 195
  9. 2025FutureSightDrive: Thinking Visually with Spatio-Temporal CoT for Autonomous Drivingcited by 165
  10. 2023MathCoder: Seamless Code Integration in LLMs for Enhanced Mathematical Reasoningcited by 155
  11. 2025SimpleTIR: End-to-End Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Turn Tool-Integrated Reasoningcited by 145
  12. 2024MARIO: MAth Reasoning with code Interpreter Output -- A Reproducible Pipelinecited by 81
31 more
  1. 2025JanusVLN: Decoupling Semantics and Spatiality with Dual Implicit Memory for Vision-Language Navigationcited by 80
  2. 2024Robust LLM safeguarding via refusal feature adversarial trainingcited by 60
  3. 2025Think with 3D: Geometric Imagination Grounded Spatial Reasoning from Limited Viewscited by 58
  4. 2025Atom of Thoughts for Markov LLM Test-Time Scalingcited by 54
  5. 2025Frequency-Aligned Knowledge Distillation for Lightweight Spatiotemporal Forecastingcited by 53
  6. 2024Plan-Seq-Learn: Language Model Guided RL for Solving Long Horizon Robotics Taskscited by 51
  7. 2025Calibrating Verbal Uncertainty as a Linear Feature to Reduce Hallucinationscited by 48
  8. 2025VisRL: Intention-Driven Visual Perception via Reinforced Reasoningcited by 39
  9. 2024Mechanistic Understanding and Mitigation of Language Model Non-Factual Hallucinationscited by 38
  10. 2025Chat-Driven Text Generation and Interaction for Person Retrievalcited by 34
  11. 2025Demystifying Reinforcement Learning in Agentic Reasoningcited by 32
  12. 2025SepPrune: Structured Pruning for Efficient Deep Speech Separationcited by 31
  13. 2025DRP: Distilled Reasoning Pruning with Skill-aware Step Decomposition for Efficient Large Reasoning Modelscited by 29
  14. 2024Question Calibration and Multi-Hop Modeling for Temporal Question Answeringcited by 25
  15. 2024Swift Sampler: Efficient Learning of Sampler by 10 Parameterscited by 25
  16. 2025SIFThinker: Spatially-Aware Image Focus for Visual Reasoningcited by 25
  17. 2023Dual Path Modeling for Semantic Matching by Perceiving Subtle Conflictscited by 21
  18. 2025Selective KV-Cache Sharing to Mitigate Timing Side-Channels in LLM Inferencecited by 18
  19. 2025Semantic-Space Exploration and Exploitation in RLVR for LLM Reasoningcited by 17
  20. 2025Learning How to Use Tools, Not Just When: Pattern-Aware Tool-Integrated Reasoningcited by 15
  21. 2025MaPPO: Maximum a Posteriori Preference Optimization with Prior Knowledgecited by 14
  22. 2025Native Parallel Reasoner: Reasoning in Parallelism via Self-Distilled Reinforcement Learningcited by 12
  23. 2024Beyond Math: Stories as a Testbed for Memorization-Constrained Reasoning in LLMscited by 11
  24. 2025FAEDKV: Infinite-Window Fourier Transform for Unbiased KV Cache Compressioncited by 11
  25. 2024DV-Matcher: Deformation-based Non-Rigid Point Cloud Matching Guided by Pre-trained Visual Featurescited by 10
  26. 2025UniHOI: Unified Human-Object Interaction Understanding via Unified Token Spacecited by 10
  27. 2024Boosting Model Resilience via Implicit Adversarial Data Augmentationcited by 7
  28. 2025Who's Your Judge? On the Detectability of LLM-Generated Judgmentscited by 6
  29. 2025Dynamic Expert Quantization for Scalable Mixture-of-Experts Inferencecited by 6
  30. 2025ExpertFlow: Adaptive Expert Scheduling and Memory Coordination for Efficient MoE Inferencecited by 5
  31. 2024DTBS: Dual-Teacher Bi-directional Self-training for Domain Adaptation in Nighttime Semantic Segmentationcited by 4

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 20.

20 papers.

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  1. 2026From Reasoning to Agentic: Credit Assignment in Reinforcement Learning for Large Language Modelscited by 19
  2. 2026When Safe Skills Collide: Measuring Compositional Risk in Agent Skill Ecosystemscited by 14
  3. 2026ToolPRMBench: Evaluating and Advancing Process Reward Models for Tool-using Agentscited by 13
  4. 2026Sustainable Hybrid Document-Routed Retrieval for Financial RAG: Resolving the Robustness-Precision Trade-offcited by 13
  5. 2026Bridging Reasoning Trajectories in On-Policy Distillation via Near-Future Guidancecited by 12
  6. 2026Cornerstones or Stumbling Blocks? Deciphering the Rock Tokens in On-Policy Distillationcited by 11
  7. 2026Reason Only When Needed: Efficient Generative Reward Modeling via Model-Internal Uncertaintycited by 6
  8. 2026Phantom Guardrails: When Self-Improving Agent Harnesses Fix Failures That Never Happenedcited by 6
  9. 2026ActorMind: Emulating Human Actor Reasoning for Speech Role-Playingcited by 4
  10. 2026MUSE: Resolving Manifold Misalignment in Visual Tokenization via Topological Orthogonalitycited by 3
  11. 2026Towards Efficient Large Language Model Serving: A Survey on System-Aware KV Cache Optimizationcited by 2
  12. 2026Same Question, Different Answer? Measuring and Mitigating Prompt Privilege for Equitable AI Accesscited by 2
8 more
  1. 2026Latency-Quality Routing for Functionally Equivalent Tools in LLM Agentscited by 1
  2. 2026IMAGINE: Adaptive Schema-Imagery Enhanced Composition for Composed Video Retrievalcited by 1
  3. 2026Toward User-Conditioned Evaluation of Personal LLM Agents under Temporal Interventionscited by 1
  4. 2026DRACO: Fine-Grained Credit Assignment with Dynamic Rubrics for Long-Horizon Agent Trainingcited by 1
  5. 2026BEFORE THE FLIP: Measuring Hidden Score Shifts In Quantized Vision Language Models Before The Answer Changes for Visual Question Answeringcited by 1
  6. 2026MASCOT-Android: A Curated Dataset and Automated Collection Pipeline for Android Malware Source Code Specimenscited by 0
  7. 2026MOSAIC: Orchestrating Collaborative Knowledge Tracing with Hierarchical Semantic Alignmentcited by 0
  8. 2026New Evidence, Same Choice: Testing Physical Experiment Selection in Vision Language Modelscited by 0

Similar, not cited

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  2. 2025Nemotron-Research-Tool-N1: Exploring Tool-Using Language Models with Reinforced Reasoning
  3. 2025AutoTIR: Autonomous Tools Integrated Reasoning via Reinforcement Learning
  4. 2025ToolComp: A Multi-Tool Reasoning & Process Supervision Benchmark
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  6. 2025Feedback-Driven Tool-Use Improvements in Large Language Models via Automated Build Environments
  7. 2025Tool Zero: Training Tool-Augmented LLMs via Pure RL from Scratch
  8. 2025Encouraging Good Processes Without the Need for Good Answers: Reinforcement Learning for LLM Agent Planning