mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Specification-Driven Generation and Evaluation of Discrete-Event World Models via the DEVS Formalism

arXiv 2603.03784 ↗First posted 4 Mar 2026cs.AIcited by 1

On the map: World models → World models for language agents

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

World models are central to LLM agents that must evaluate actions over long horizons. Yet much existing work focuses on environments governed by physical dynamics or spatial structure, whereas many high-impact domains, including supply chains, procurement networks, and business processes, evolve through discrete events, timing constraints, and causal dependencies. These settings call for discrete-event world models. Existing approaches to constructing world models often fall near two extremes: hand-engineered simulators provide consistency and reproducibility, but are costly to build and adapt; neural models are flexible, but can suffer from compounding inconsistency over long-horizon rollouts. We seek a principled middle ground by synthesizing discrete-event world models online from natural-language specifications, retaining the reliability of explicit simulators while gaining the adaptability of neural models. We adopt the DEVS formalism and introduce a staged LLM-based generation pipeline that separates structural inference over component interactions from component-level event and timing logic. For evaluation, we develop benchmark suites in which simulators emit structured event traces, which are then validated against specification-derived temporal, causal, and semantic constraints. This enables reproducible verification and localized diagnostics. Together, these contributions produce world models that remain consistent over long-horizon rollouts, can be verified from observable behavior, and can be synthesized efficiently on demand during online execution.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in World models for language agents, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 21 of its 31 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Mar 2026.

Builds on

21 of 31 references.

Closest ancestors · 7

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Web World Models29 Dec
  2. 2025From Word to World: Can Large Language Models be Implicit Text-based World Models?21 Dec
  3. 2024Is Your LLM Secretly a World Model of the Internet? Model-Based Planning for Web Agents10 Nov
  4. 2024Web Agents with World Models: Learning and Leveraging Environment Dynamics in Web Navigation17 Oct
  5. 2023Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Model24 May
  6. 2023Language Models Meet World Models: Embodied Experiences Enhance Language Models18 May
  7. 2020ALFWorld: Aligning Text and Embodied Environments for Interactive Learning8 Oct

Other references · 14

  1. 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,320
  2. 2023SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?cited by 3,373
  3. 2018Recurrent World Models Facilitate Policy Evolutioncited by 785
  4. 2022DayDreamer: World Models for Physical Robot Learningcited by 400
  5. 2023RepoBench: Benchmarking Repository-Level Code Auto-Completion Systemscited by 353
  6. 2020Metamorphic Testing: A New Approach for Generating Next Test Casescited by 75
  7. 2025NL2Repo-Bench: Towards Long-Horizon Repository Generation Evaluation of Coding Agentscited by 65
  8. 2025FEA-Bench: A Benchmark for Evaluating Repository-Level Code Generation for Feature Implementationcited by 58
  9. 2024PWM: Policy Learning with Multi-Task World Modelscited by 17
  10. 2024Leveraging Environment Interaction for Automated PDDL Translation and Planning with Large Language Modelscited by 17
  11. 2024PROC2PDDL: Open-Domain Planning Representations from Textscited by 15
  12. 2024Evaluating Large Language Models on Business Process Modeling: Framework, Benchmark, and Self-Improvement Analysiscited by 13
2 more
  1. 2025A System Model Generation Benchmark from Natural Language Requirementscited by 4
  2. 2025Scalable, Symbiotic, AI and Non-AI Agent Based Parallel Discrete Event Simulationscited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

1 paper.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025Agent2World: Learning to Generate Symbolic World Models via Adaptive Multi-Agent Feedback
  2. 2026Why We Need World Models for AGI: Where LLMs Fail and How World Models May Outperform
  3. 2026From Topology to Trajectory: LLM-Driven World Models For Supply Chain Resilience
  4. 2026Self-Evolving World Models for LLM Agent Planning
  5. 2024Making Large Language Models into World Models with Precondition and Effect Knowledge
  6. 2026A Unifying Perspective on Causal World Models: From Observations to Representations to Structure
  7. 2026Do Enterprise Systems Need Learned World Models? The Importance of Context to Infer Dynamics
  8. 2024Evaluation-Driven Development and Operations of LLM Agents: A Process Model and Reference Architecture