mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Graph-GRPO: Stabilizing Multi-Agent Topology Learning via Group Relative Policy Optimization

arXiv 2603.02701 ↗First posted 3 Mar 2026cs.CLcited by 4

On the map: LLM reasoning → Reinforcement learning for reasoning

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Optimizing communication topology is fundamental to the efficiency and effectiveness of Large Language Model (LLM)-based Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). While recent approaches utilize reinforcement learning to dynamically construct task-specific graphs, they typically rely on single-sample policy gradients with absolute rewards (e.g., binary correctness). This paradigm suffers from severe gradient variance and the credit assignment problem: simple queries yield non-informative positive rewards for suboptimal structures, while difficult queries often result in failures that provide no learning signal. To address these challenges, we propose Graph-GRPO, a novel topology optimization framework that integrates Group Relative Policy Optimization. Instead of evaluating a single topology in isolation, Graph-GRPO samples a group of diverse communication graphs for each query and computes the advantage of specific edges based on their relative performance within the group. By normalizing rewards across the sampled group, our method effectively mitigates the noise derived from task difficulty variance and enables fine-grained credit assignment. Extensive experiments on reasoning and code generation benchmarks demonstrate that Graph-GRPO significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines, achieving superior training stability and identifying critical communication pathways previously obscured by reward noise.

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning for reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 6 of its 30 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 Mar 2026.

Builds on

6 of 30 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms20 Jul

Other references · 5

  1. 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 9,743
  2. 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,053
  3. 2023AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversationcited by 1,906
  4. 2025Understanding the Information Propagation Effects of Communication Topologies in LLM-based Multi-Agent Systemscited by 39
  5. 2025AgentDropout: Dynamic Agent Elimination for Token-Efficient and High-Performance LLM-Based Multi-Agent Collaborationcited by 6

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.

4 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Agent Q-Mix: Selecting the Right Action for LLM Multi-Agent Systems through Reinforcement Learning
  2. 2025Topological Structure Learning Should Be A Research Priority for LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems
  3. 2025Graph-Enhanced Policy Optimization in LLM Agent Training
  4. 2026Group-Graph Policy Optimization for Long-Horizon Agentic Reinforcement Learning
  5. 2026AgentConductor: Topology Evolution for Multi-Agent Competition-Level Code Generation
  6. 2026GoAgent: Group-of-Agents Communication Topology Generation for LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems
  7. 2026Reward-Guided Autoregressive Graph Generation for Efficient Multi-Agent Communication Topology Design
  8. 2026HieraMAS: Optimizing Intra-Node LLM Mixtures and Inter-Node Topology for Multi-Agent Systems