Agent-Diff: Benchmarking LLM Agents on Enterprise API Tasks via Code Execution with State-Diff-Based Evaluation
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Software engineering coding agents
Abstract (arXiv)
We present Agent-Diff, a novel benchmarking framework for evaluating agentic Large Language Models (LLMs) on real-world productivity software API tasks via code execution. Agentic LLM performance varies due to differences in models, external tool access, prompt structures, and agentic frameworks. Benchmarks must make fundamental trade-offs between a sandboxed approach that controls for variation in software environments and more ecologically valid approaches employing real services. Agent-Diff attempts to capture the desirable features of both of these approaches by including access to the real API interfaces for software services while sandboxing the environment in which calls are made, processed, and evaluated. This approach relies on two key innovations. The first is a novel state-diff contract, which separates process from outcome - rather than fuzzy trace or parameter matching, we define task success as whether the expected change in environment state was achieved. The second is a novel sandbox built on containerized replicas of enterprise APIs, allowing all models to interact with the same service interfaces through code execution. This enables controlled evaluation against a common set of state-diff contracts while preserving the structure of real-world API interaction. Using the Agent-Diff framework, we provide benchmarks for nine LLMs across 224 tasks utilizing enterprise software workflows. In addition, we evaluate the robustness of the framework with ablation experiments to assess the contribution of access to API documentation on benchmark performance. Code and data: https://github.com/agent-diff-bench/agent-diff.
Key facts. Cited by 12 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 8 of its 71 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 11 Feb 2026.
Builds on
8 of 71 references.
References · 8
- 2024τ-bench: A Benchmark for Tool-Agent-User Interaction in Real-World Domainscited by 1,280
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- 2024The Landscape of Emerging AI Agent Architectures for Reasoning, Planning, and Tool Calling: A Surveycited by 164
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- 2025MCP-Universe: Benchmarking Large Language Models with Real-World Model Context Protocol Serverscited by 89
- 2025Towards Reliable Benchmarking: A Contamination Free, Controllable Evaluation Framework for Multi-step LLM Function Callingcited by 13
- 2025A Framework for Testing and Adapting REST APIs as LLM Toolscited by 9
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 12.
12 papers.
- 2026ClawsBench: Evaluating Capability and Safety of LLM Productivity Agents in Simulated Workspacescited by 31
- 2026VIGIL: Runtime Enforcement of Behavioral Specifications in AI Agent Skillscited by 8
- 2026MANTRA: Synthesizing SMT-Validated Compliance Benchmarks for Tool-Using LLM Agentscited by 3
- 2026OneDayAgent: Towards a Long-Horizon Harness for Autonomous Agentscited by 1
- 2026Where Reliability Lives: Experimental Localisation of Behavioural Properties in an Agent Systemcited by 0
- 2026Trace2Tower: Transition-Aware EigenTrace Induction of Multi-Level Skills for LLM Agentscited by 0
- 2026CityPlanner: A Sandbox Agent for Executable Urban Planningcited by 0
- 2026Do Not Restart: Residual Completion for Stateful Agent Handoffscited by 0
- 2026Stale Does Not Mean Unsafe: Guard Precision for Tool-Using LLM Agents under Infrastructure State Racescited by 0
- 2026Hearsay: Can an Auditor Trust the Record a Deployed Agent Harness Writes?cited by 0
- 2026One Readout, Many Repairs: Diffusion-Guided Hierarchical Search for Tool-Agent Repaircited by 0
- 2026Do Agent Benchmarks Do What They Say? An Executable-Contract Audit of Tool-Using Agent Environmentscited by 0
- 2026Do Agent Benchmarks Do What They Say? An Executable-Contract Audit of Tool-Using Agent Environments29 Sep 2026
- 2026One Readout, Many Repairs: Diffusion-Guided Hierarchical Search for Tool-Agent Repair28 Sep 2026
- 2026Hearsay: Can an Auditor Trust the Record a Deployed Agent Harness Writes?26 Sep 2026
- 2026Do Not Restart: Residual Completion for Stateful Agent Handoffs12 Sep 2026
- 2026CityPlanner: A Sandbox Agent for Executable Urban Planning9 Sep 2026
- 2026Trace2Tower: Transition-Aware EigenTrace Induction of Multi-Level Skills for LLM Agents4 Sep 2026
- 2026Where Reliability Lives: Experimental Localisation of Behavioural Properties in an Agent System2 Sep 2026
- 2026Stale Does Not Mean Unsafe: Guard Precision for Tool-Using LLM Agents under Infrastructure State Races25 Aug 2026
- 2026OneDayAgent: Towards a Long-Horizon Harness for Autonomous Agents4 Aug 2026
- 2026VIGIL: Runtime Enforcement of Behavioral Specifications in AI Agent Skills25 Jun 2026
- 2026MANTRA: Synthesizing SMT-Validated Compliance Benchmarks for Tool-Using LLM Agents7 May 2026
- 2026ClawsBench: Evaluating Capability and Safety of LLM Productivity Agents in Simulated Workspaces6 Apr 2026
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