# Autonomous Knowledge Graph Exploration with Adaptive Breadth-Depth Retrieval

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.13969 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.13969/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 40 of its 99 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 40)

- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.02531/) (2015)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [Dense Passage Retrieval for Open-Domain Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.04906/) (2020)
- [REALM: Retrieval-Augmented Language Model Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.08909/) (2020)
- [From Local to Global: A Graph RAG Approach to Query-Focused Summarization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16130/) (2024)
- [Leveraging Passage Retrieval with Generative Models for Open Domain Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.01282/) (2020)
- [Ups and Downs: Modeling the Visual Evolution of Fashion Trends with One-Class Collaborative Filtering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.01585/) (2016)
- [Flow Network based Generative Models for Non-Iterative Diverse Candidate Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.04399/) (2021)
- [Reasoning on Graphs: Faithful and Interpretable Large Language Model Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01061/) (2023)
- [DeepPath: A Reinforcement Learning Method for Knowledge Graph Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06690/) (2017)
- [Think-on-Graph: Deep and Responsible Reasoning of Large Language Model on Knowledge Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.07697/) (2023)
- [Generative Representational Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.09906/) (2024)
- [PullNet: Open Domain Question Answering with Iterative Retrieval on Knowledge Bases and Text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.09537/) (2019)
- [Go for a Walk and Arrive at the Answer: Reasoning Over Paths in Knowledge Bases using Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.05851/) (2017)
- [Learning to Retrieve Reasoning Paths over Wikipedia Graph for Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.10470/) (2019)
- [Investigating the Factual Knowledge Boundary of Large Language Models with Retrieval Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.11019/) (2023)
- [Inferring Networks of Substitutable and Complementary Products](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.08839/) (2015)
- [AvaTaR: Optimizing LLM Agents for Tool Usage via Contrastive Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11200/) (2024)
- [Voting or Consensus? Decision-Making in Multi-Agent Debate](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19130/) (2025)
- [STaRK: Benchmarking LLM Retrieval on Textual and Relational Knowledge Bases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13207/) (2024)
- [Distilling LLM Agent into Small Models with Retrieval and Code Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17612/) (2025)
- [Instruction Tuning With Loss Over Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14394/) (2024)
- [HybGRAG: Hybrid Retrieval-Augmented Generation on Textual and Relational Knowledge Bases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.16311/) (2024)
- [Instruction Fine-Tuning: Does Prompt Loss Matter?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.13586/) (2024)
- [Knowledge-Aware Query Expansion with Large Language Models for Textual and Relational Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.13765/) (2024)
- [Ground Every Sentence: Improving Retrieval-Augmented LLMs with Interleaved Reference-Claim Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01796/) (2024)

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

- [DeSQ: Decomposition-based SPARQL Query Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00203/) (2026)
- [When Thinking Before Retrieval Hurts: TraceBound Diagnostics for Adaptive Knowledge-Graph Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.24800/) (2026)
- [Knowledge Graphs as Files: An Agent Harness Where Tool Creation and Tool Use Co-Evolve](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.18616/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Retrieving evidence for language model queries from knowledge graphs requires balancing broad search across the graph with multi-hop traversal to follow relational links. Similarity-based retrievers provide coverage but remain shallow, whereas traversal-based methods rely on selecting seed nodes to start exploration, which can fail when queries span multiple entities and relations. We introduce ARK: Adaptive Retriever of Knowledge, a tool-using KG retriever that gives a language model control over this breadth-depth tradeoff using a two-operation toolset: global lexical search over node descriptors and one-hop neighborhood exploration that composes into multi-hop traversal. ARK alternates between breadth-oriented discovery and depth-oriented expansion without depending on a fragile seed selection, a pre-set hop depth, or requiring retrieval training. ARK adapts tool use to queries, using global search for language-heavy queries and neighborhood exploration for relation-heavy queries. On STaRK, ARK reaches 59.1% average Hit@1 and 67.4 average MRR, improving average Hit@1 by up to 31.4% and average MRR by up to 28.0% over retrieval-based and agent-based training-free methods. Finally, we distill ARK's tool-use trajectories from a large teacher into an 8B model via label-free imitation, improving Hit@1 by +7.0, +26.6, and +13.5 absolute points over the base 8B model on AMAZON, MAG, and PRIME datasets, respectively, while retaining up to 98.5% of the teacher's Hit@1 rate.