mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

GenAgent: Scaling Text-to-Image Generation via Agentic Multimodal Reasoning

arXiv 2601.18543 ↗First posted 26 Jan 2026cs.CVcited by 24

On the map: LLM reasoning → Multimodal reasoning

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce GenAgent, unifying visual understanding and generation through an agentic multimodal model. Unlike unified models that face expensive training costs and understanding-generation trade-offs, GenAgent decouples these capabilities through an agentic framework: understanding is handled by the multimodal model itself, while generation is achieved by treating image generation models as invokable tools. Crucially, unlike existing modular systems constrained by static pipelines, this design enables autonomous multi-turn interactions where the agent generates multimodal chains-of-thought encompassing reasoning, tool invocation, judgment, and reflection to iteratively refine outputs. We employ a two-stage training strategy: first, cold-start with supervised fine-tuning on high-quality tool invocation and reflection data to bootstrap agent behaviors; second, end-to-end agentic reinforcement learning combining pointwise rewards (final image quality) and pairwise rewards (reflection accuracy), with trajectory resampling for enhanced multi-turn exploration. GenAgent significantly boosts base generator(FLUX.1-dev) performance on GenEval++ (+23.6%) and WISE (+14%). Beyond performance gains, our framework demonstrates three key properties: 1) cross-tool generalization to generators with varying capabilities, 2) test-time scaling with consistent improvements across interaction rounds, and 3) task-adaptive reasoning that automatically adjusts to different tasks. Our code will be available at hrefhttps://github.com/deep-kaixun/GenAgentthis url.

Key facts. Cited by 24 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 29 of its 42 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 26 Jan 2026.

Builds on

29 of 42 references.

Closest ancestors · 7

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Thinking with Video: Video Generation as a Promising Multimodal Reasoning Paradigm6 Nov
  2. 2025Understanding-in-Generation: Reinforcing Generative Capability of Unified Model via Infusing Understanding into Generation23 Sep
  3. 2025PromptEnhancer: A Simple Approach to Enhance Text-to-Image Models via Chain-of-Thought Prompt Rewriting4 Sep
  4. 2025Thyme: Think Beyond Images15 Aug
  5. 2025RePrompt: Reasoning-Augmented Reprompting for Text-to-Image Generation via Reinforcement Learning23 May
  6. 2025GoT-R1: Unleashing Reasoning Capability of MLLM for Visual Generation with Reinforcement Learning22 May
  7. 2025DeepEyes: Incentivizing "Thinking with Images" via Reinforcement Learning20 May

Other references · 22

  1. 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 10,109
  2. 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,330
  3. 2025Qwen2.5-VL Technical Reportcited by 5,587
  4. 2025Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilitiescited by 3,796
  5. 2025DAPO: An Open-Source LLM Reinforcement Learning System at Scalecited by 2,810
  6. 2025Wan: Open and Advanced Large-Scale Video Generative Modelscited by 2,708
  7. 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 2,057
  8. 2025Qwen-Image Technical Reportcited by 1,044
  9. 2025Emerging Properties in Unified Multimodal Pretrainingcited by 897
  10. 2025Janus-Pro: Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generation with Data and Model Scalingcited by 812
  11. 2024Show-o: One Single Transformer to Unify Multimodal Understanding and Generationcited by 752
  12. 2025BLIP3-o: A Family of Fully Open Unified Multimodal Models-Architecture, Training and Datasetcited by 376
10 more
  1. 2024Deliberative Alignment: Reasoning Enables Safer Language Modelscited by 308
  2. 2025Inference-Time Scaling for Generalist Reward Modelingcited by 239
  3. 2025WISE: A World Knowledge-Informed Semantic Evaluation for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 204
  4. 2025DeepEyesV2: Toward Agentic Multimodal Modelcited by 125
  5. 2025X-Omni: Reinforcement Learning Makes Discrete Autoregressive Image Generative Models Great Againcited by 112
  6. 2025Echo-4o: Harnessing the Power of GPT-4o Synthetic Images for Improved Image Generationcited by 100
  7. 2025rStar2-Agent: Agentic Reasoning Technical Reportcited by 54
  8. 2025BLIP3o-NEXT: Next Frontier of Native Image Generationcited by 54
  9. 2025Delving into RL for Image Generation with CoT: A Study on DPO vs. GRPOcited by 31
  10. 2025SUDER: Self-Improving Unified Large Multimodal Models for Understanding and Generation with Dual Self-Rewardscited by 8

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 24.

24 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2026Mind-Brush: Integrating Agentic Cognitive Search and Reasoning into Image Generationcited by 23
  2. 2026GEMS: Agent-Native Multimodal Generation with Memory and Skillscited by 21
  3. 2026GenEvolve: Self-Evolving Image Generation Agents via Tool-Orchestrated Visual Experience Distillationcited by 19
  4. 2026Qwen-Image-Agent: Bridging the Context Gap in Real-World Image Generationcited by 13
  5. 2026NEWTON: Agentic Planning for Physically Grounded Video Generationcited by 12
  6. 2026GenClaw: Code-Driven Agentic Image Generationcited by 11
  7. 2026Search Beyond What Can Be Taught: Evolving the Knowledge Boundary in Agentic Visual Generationcited by 8
  8. 2026COMFYCLAW: Self-Evolving Skill Harnesses for Image Generation Workflowscited by 6
  9. 2026GenRouter: Unified Workflow Routing for Agentic Image Generationcited by 5
  10. 2026AIBench: Evaluating Visual-Logical Consistency in Academic Illustration Generationcited by 4
  11. 2026ToolArtist: Tool-Using Unified Multimodal Models for Agentic Image Generationcited by 4
  12. 2026MemoGen: Can Past Experience Improve Future Text-to-Image Generation?cited by 3
12 more
  1. 2026GLANCE: A Global-Local Coordination Multi-Agent Framework for Music-Grounded Non-Linear Video Editingcited by 2
  2. 2026WeAgent-MMGenEdit: A Full-Stack Recipe for Multimodal Agentic Image Generation and Editingcited by 1
  3. 2026Agentic Visual Generation: From Generative Models to Agentic Controlcited by 1
  4. 2026AgenticGen: Reward-Guided Agentic Video Generation for Advertisingcited by 0
  5. 2026AdaPilot: Towards Scene-Adaptive Policy Learning for Cross-Generator Text-to-Image Quality Optimizationcited by 0
  6. 2026SegBanana: Steering Unified Multimodal Models into Medical Segmenterscited by 0
  7. 2026SkillPE: Creativity-Oriented Cinematic Skill Evolution for Text-to-Video Prompt Engineeringcited by 0
  8. 2026AutoRef: Harness Optimization for Agentic Multi-Reference Image Generationcited by 0
  9. 2026Internalizing Agent Experience into Diffusion Model Weights via On-Policy Context Distillationcited by 0
  10. 2026MotionCoach: Constructing Multimodal Guidance for Video Professional Motion Editingcited by 0
  11. 2026Look Back to Move Forward: Learning to Revisit for Agentic Compositional Image Generationcited by 0
  12. 2026APT: Feedback-Driven Agentic Post-Training for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025CRAFT: Continuous Reasoning and Agentic Feedback Tuning for Multimodal Text-to-Image Generation
  2. 2025ImAgent: A Unified Multimodal Agent Framework for Test-Time Scalable Image Generation
  3. 2025Collaborative Text-to-Image Generation via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning and Semantic Fusion
  4. 2026M3: High-fidelity Text-to-Image Generation via Multi-Modal, Multi-Agent and Multi-Round Visual Reasoning
  5. 2026Gen-Searcher: Reinforcing Agentic Search for Image Generation
  6. 2026Learning to Generate via Understanding: Understanding-Driven Intrinsic Rewarding for Unified Multimodal Models
  7. 2025A Unified Multi-Agent Framework for Universal Multimodal Understanding and Generation
  8. 2026RS-Gen: A Multi-Stage Agentic Framework for Reasoning and Search-Augmented Image Generation