mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

MemoBrain: Executive Memory as an Agentic Brain for Reasoning

arXiv 2601.08079 ↗First posted 12 Jan 2026cs.AI cs.CL cs.IRcited by 12

On the map: LLM reasoning → Reasoning for agents, planning and code

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Complex reasoning in tool-augmented agent frameworks is inherently long-horizon, causing reasoning traces and transient tool artifacts to accumulate and strain the bounded working context of large language models. Without explicit memory mechanisms, such accumulation disrupts logical continuity and undermines task alignment. This positions memory not as an auxiliary efficiency concern, but as a core component for sustaining coherent, goal-directed reasoning over long horizons. We propose MemoBrain, an executive memory model for tool-augmented agents that constructs a dependency-aware memory over reasoning steps, capturing salient intermediate states and their logical relations. Operating as a co-pilot alongside the reasoning agent, MemoBrain organizes reasoning progress without blocking execution and actively manages the working context. Specifically, it prunes invalid steps, folds completed sub-trajectories, and preserves a compact, high-salience reasoning backbone under a fixed context budget. Together, these mechanisms enable explicit cognitive control over reasoning trajectories rather than passive context accumulation. We evaluate MemoBrain on challenging long-horizon benchmarks, including GAIA, WebWalker, and BrowseComp-Plus, demonstrating consistent improvements over strong baselines.

Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reasoning for agents, planning and code, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 27 of its 44 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 12 Jan 2026.

Builds on

27 of 44 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025DeepAgent: A General Reasoning Agent with Scalable Toolsets24 Oct
  2. 2025MemAgent: Reshaping Long-Context LLM with Multi-Conv RL-based Memory Agent3 Jul

Other references · 25

  1. 2025Qwen3 Technical Reportcited by 8,195
  2. 2023MemGPT: Towards LLMs as Operating Systemscited by 1,295
  3. 2025A-MEM: Agentic Memory for LLM Agentscited by 1,000
  4. 2024Evaluating Very Long-Term Conversational Memory of LLM Agentscited by 800
  5. 2025Mem0: Building Production-Ready AI Agents with Scalable Long-Term Memorycited by 722
  6. 2025BrowseComp: A Simple Yet Challenging Benchmark for Browsing Agentscited by 616
  7. 2024LongBench v2: Towards Deeper Understanding and Reasoning on Realistic Long-context Multitaskscited by 367
  8. 2025ToolRL: Reward is All Tool Learning Needscited by 342
  9. 2025WebThinker: Empowering Large Reasoning Models with Deep Research Capabilitycited by 320
  10. 2025Memory in the Age of AI Agentscited by 285
  11. 2025Memory-R1: Enhancing Large Language Model Agents to Manage and Utilize Memories via Reinforcement Learningcited by 220
  12. 2025The Landscape of Agentic Reinforcement Learning for LLMs: A Surveycited by 195
13 more
  1. 2025BrowseComp-Plus: A More Fair and Transparent Evaluation Benchmark of Deep-Research Agentcited by 183
  2. 2025WebDancer: Towards Autonomous Information Seeking Agencycited by 180
  3. 2025WebWalker: Benchmarking LLMs in Web Traversalcited by 171
  4. 2025A Survey of Self-Evolving Agents: What, When, How, and Where to Evolve on the Path to Artificial Super Intelligencecited by 155
  5. 2025Memory OS of AI Agentcited by 140
  6. 2025Scaling Long-Horizon LLM Agent via Context-Foldingcited by 136
  7. 2025ReSum: Unlocking Long-Horizon Search Intelligence via Context Summarizationcited by 132
  8. 2025A Survey of Context Engineering for Large Language Modelscited by 120
  9. 2025AgentFold: Long-Horizon Web Agents with Proactive Context Managementcited by 95
  10. 2025MemOS: An Operating System for Memory-Augmented Generation (MAG) in Large Language Modelscited by 68
  11. 2025Tongyi DeepResearch Technical Reportcited by 53
  12. 2025General Agentic Memory Via Deep Researchcited by 42
  13. 2025Open Data Synthesis For Deep Researchcited by 14

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 12.

12 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025MemGen: Weaving Generative Latent Memory for Self-Evolving Agents
  2. 2026MemWeaver: Weaving Hybrid Memories for Traceable Long-Horizon Agentic Reasoning
  3. 2026Unlocking the Working Memory of Large Language Models for Latent Reasoning
  4. 2026LatentHarness: Learning Latent Actions for Memory and Reasoning via Counterfactual Policy Distillation
  5. 2026Track, Rank, Crack: Epistemic Working Memory Scales Multi-Hop Reasoning in Language Agents
  6. 2026Weighted Memory Tree: Remembering What Matters for Long-Horizon LLM Agents
  7. 2026MemCog: From Memory-as-Tool to Memory-as-Cognition in Conversational Agents
  8. 2026BMAM: Brain-inspired Multi-Agent Memory Framework