# ToolRosella: Translating Code Repositories into Standardized Tools for Scientific Agents

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09290 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.09290/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Software engineering coding agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 9 of its 48 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Mar 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Software engineering coding agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/software-engineering-coding-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15793/) (2024)
- [ChemCrow: Augmenting large-language models with chemistry tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05376/) (2023)
- [CRISPR-GPT for Agentic Automation of Gene-editing Experiments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.18021/) (2024)
- [SciToolAgent: A Knowledge Graph-Driven Scientific Agent for Multi-Tool Integration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.20280/) (2025)
- [SciSciGPT: Advancing Human-AI Collaboration in the Science of Science](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05559/) (2025)
- [RepoMaster: Autonomous Exploration and Understanding of GitHub Repositories for Complex Task Solving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21577/) (2025)
- [Enhancing Open-Domain Task-Solving Capability of LLMs via Autonomous Tool Integration from GitHub](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.17294/) (2023)
- [PhenoAssistant: A Conversational Multi-Agent AI System for Automated Plant Phenotyping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19818/) (2025)
- [An Analysis of Security Vulnerabilities in Container Images for Scientific Data Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.13970/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [SKILLFOUNDRY: Building Self-Evolving Agent Skill Libraries from Heterogeneous Scientific Resources](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03964/) (2026)
- [FlowEvo: Self-Evolving Agents through the Co-Evolution of Workflows and Executable Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.21596/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large Language Model (LLM)-based agent systems are increasingly used for scientific tasks, yet their practical capability remains constrained by the narrow scope of manually curated tools they can invoke. Much scientific computational functionality already exists in open-source code repositories, but these resources remain difficult to standardize, operationalize, and invoke reliably for agent use. Here we present ToolRosella, a framework that automatically transforms heterogeneous scientific code repositories into standardized, agent-invocable tools. ToolRosella combines repository analysis, tool interface construction, execution testing, and iterative repair to address the problem of repository-to-tool standardization. Across 122 GitHub repositories spanning 35 subdisciplines in six domains, ToolRosella reaches a 61.5% repository conversion success rate after iterative repair, with a 4.4 speedup over human engineers. The resulting 1,580 callable tools support a downstream task success rate of 84.0% and improve performance when integrated into other agent frameworks, particularly on tasks whose required tools are absent from fixed, curated inventories.