mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

BayesFlow: A Probability Inference Framework for Meta-Agent Assisted Workflow Generation

arXiv 2601.22305 ↗First posted 29 Jan 2026cs.LGcited by 2

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Software engineering coding agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Automatic workflow generation is the process of automatically synthesizing sequences of LLM calls, tool invocations, and post-processing steps for complex end-to-end tasks. Most prior methods cast this task as an optimization problem with limited theoretical grounding. We propose to cast workflow generation as Bayesian inference over a posterior distribution on workflows, and introduce Bayesian Workflow Generation (BWG), a sampling framework that builds workflows step-by-step using parallel look-ahead rollouts for importance weighting and a sequential in-loop refiner for pool-wide improvements. We prove that, without the refiner, the weighted empirical distribution converges to the target posterior. We instantiate BWG as BayesFlow, a training-free algorithm for workflow construction. Across six benchmark datasets, BayesFlow improves accuracy by up to 9 percentage points over SOTA workflow generation baselines and by up to 65 percentage points over zero-shot prompting, establishing BWG as a principled upgrade to search-based workflow design. Code will be available on https://github.com/BoYuanVisionary/BayesFlow.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Software engineering coding agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 36 of its 67 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Jan 2026.

Builds on

36 of 67 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Weak-for-Strong: Training Weak Meta-Agent to Harness Strong Executors7 Apr
  2. 2025ScoreFlow: Mastering LLM Agent Workflows via Score-based Preference Optimization6 Feb
  3. 2024AutoFlow: Automated Workflow Generation for Large Language Model Agents1 Jul

Other references · 33

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Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Learning to Compose for Cross-domain Agentic Workflow Generation
  2. 2025A2Flow: Automating Agentic Workflow Generation via Self-Adaptive Abstraction Operators
  3. 2026From Search to Synthesis: Training LLMs as Zero-Shot Workflow Generators
  4. 2024AFlow: Automating Agentic Workflow Generation
  5. 2025RobustFlow: Towards Robust Agentic Workflow Generation
  6. 2024Benchmarking Agentic Workflow Generation
  7. 2026FlowScout: From Execution Feedback to Reliable Tool-Using Agent Workflows
  8. 2025(P)rior(D)yna(F)low: A Priori Dynamic Workflow Construction via Multi-Agent Collaboration