mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

WebXSkill: Skill Learning for Autonomous Web Agents

arXiv 2604.13318 ↗First posted 14 Apr 2026cs.AI cs.CLcited by 24

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Web, search, and research agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Autonomous web agents powered by large language models (LLMs) remain brittle on long-horizon browser workflows. A key bottleneck is a grounding gap in existing skill formulations: textual workflow skills provide natural language guidance but cannot be directly executed, while code-based skills execute without giving the agent step-level guidance for adaptation or recovery. We introduce WebXSkill, a framework that bridges this gap with executable skills, each pairing a parameterized action program with step-level natural-language guidance. WebXSkill operates in three stages: skill extraction mines reusable action subsequences from readily available synthetic agent trajectories and abstracts them into parameterized skills, skill organization indexes them into a URL-based graph for context-aware retrieval, and skill deployment exposes two complementary modes, grounded mode for fully automated execution and guided mode where skills serve as step-by-step instructions the agent follows with its native planning. WebXSkill demonstrates consistent improvements on WebArena, WebVoyager, and Online-Mind2Web. We further find that better skill deployment mode depends on a model's plan and execution capability. The code is available at https://github.com/aiming-lab/WebXSkill.

Key facts. Cited by 24 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Web, search, and research agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 30 of its 39 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 Apr 2026.

Builds on

30 of 39 references.

Closest ancestors · 16

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025SynthAgent: Adapting Web Agents with Synthetic Supervision8 Nov
  2. 2025WALT: Web Agents that Learn Tools1 Oct
  3. 2025WebSailor: Navigating Super-human Reasoning for Web Agent3 Jul
  4. 2025WebAgent-R1: Training Web Agents via End-to-End Multi-Turn Reinforcement Learning22 May
  5. 2025SkillWeaver: Web Agents can Self-Improve by Discovering and Honing Skills9 Apr
  6. 2025Inducing Programmatic Skills for Agentic Tasks9 Apr
  7. 2025An Illusion of Progress? Assessing the Current State of Web Agents2 Apr
  8. 2025A Survey of WebAgents: Towards Next-Generation AI Agents for Web Automation with Large Foundation Models30 Mar
  9. 2025Explorer: Scaling Exploration-driven Web Trajectory Synthesis for Multimodal Web Agents17 Feb
  10. 2024Proposer-Agent-Evaluator(PAE): Autonomous Skill Discovery For Foundation Model Internet Agents17 Dec
  11. 2024OpenWebVoyager: Building Multimodal Web Agents via Iterative Real-World Exploration, Feedback and Optimization25 Oct
  12. 2024NNetNav: Unsupervised Learning of Browser Agents Through Environment Interaction in the Wild3 Oct
4 more
  1. 2024Agent Workflow Memory11 Sep
  2. 2024WebVoyager: Building an End-to-End Web Agent with Large Multimodal Models25 Jan
  3. 2023WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agents25 Jul
  4. 2023Mind2Web: Towards a Generalist Agent for the Web9 Jun

Other references · 14

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
  2. 2023AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversationcited by 1,988
  3. 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Frameworkcited by 1,808
  4. 2021WebGPT: Browser-assisted question-answering with human feedbackcited by 1,745
  5. 2025Mem0: Building Production-Ready AI Agents with Scalable Long-Term Memorycited by 779
  6. 2025UI-R1: Enhancing Efficient Action Prediction of GUI Agents by Reinforcement Learningcited by 168
  7. 2024OS-Genesis: Automating GUI Agent Trajectory Construction via Reverse Task Synthesiscited by 163
  8. 2025Agent S2: A Compositional Generalist-Specialist Framework for Computer Use Agentscited by 159
  9. 2023SteP: Stacked LLM Policies for Web Actionscited by 66
  10. 2025ScaleCUA: Scaling Open-Source Computer Use Agents with Cross-Platform Datacited by 60
  11. 2024VLM Agents Generate Their Own Memories: Distilling Experience into Embodied Programs of Thoughtcited by 55
  12. 2026PlugMem: A Task-Agnostic Plugin Memory Module for LLM Agentscited by 32
2 more
  1. 2025UltraCUA: A Foundation Model for Computer Use Agents with Hybrid Actioncited by 31
  2. 2026GUI-Libra: Training Native GUI Agents to Reason and Act with Action-aware Supervision and Partially Verifiable RLcited by 16

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 24.

24 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 2026SkillRet: A Large-Scale Benchmark for Skill Retrieval in LLM Agentscited by 39
  2. 2026SkillGen: Verified Inference-Time Agent Skill Synthesiscited by 36
  3. 2026From Context to Skills: Can Language Models Learn from Context Skillfully?cited by 19
  4. 2026Dynamic Skill Lifecycle Management for Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 12
  5. 2026OpenWebRL: Demystifying Online Multi-turn Reinforcement Learning for Visual Web Agentscited by 6
  6. 2026Are Online Skill and Memory Modules Always Worth Their Tokens? A Budget-Constrained Study of Web Agentscited by 6
  7. 2026Dynamic Agent Skills: A Lifecycle Survey and Taxonomy of Evolving Skill Librariescited by 6
  8. 2026SKILL-KD: Contrastive Skill Distillation for LLM Agentscited by 3
  9. 2026MIND-Skill: Quality-Guaranteed Skill Generation via Multi-Agent Induction and Deductioncited by 2
  10. 2026SkillWiki: A Living Knowledge Infrastructure for Agent Skillscited by 2
  11. 2026LemonHarness Technical Reportcited by 2
  12. 2026Hierarchical Experimentalist Agentscited by 2
12 more
  1. 2026Progressive Agent Skill Generation via Reinforcement Learningcited by 2
  2. 2026SkillReason: Reasoning-Enhanced Agent Skill Retrieval for Implicit User Requestscited by 2
  3. 2026Reflect, Revise, Reuse: Training-Free Skill Evolution for GUI Agentscited by 2
  4. 2026Skim: Speculative Execution for Fast and Efficient Web Agentscited by 1
  5. 2026Procedural Graphs: Self-Evolving Execution Structures for LLM Agentscited by 1
  6. 2026TTSE: A Two-Track Online Self-Evolution Frameworkcited by 1
  7. 2026SkillChain: Closing the Loop on Skill Evolution for Image-Based E-Commerce AI Assistantscited by 0
  8. 2026Beyond Domains: Reusing Web Skills via Transferable Interaction Patternscited by 0
  9. 2026Towards a Systems Foundation for Agentic Skills: Architecture, Lifecycle, and Securitycited by 0
  10. 2026SkillAlign: Aligning Skill Interfaces for LLM-based Agentscited by 0
  11. 2026AutoTailor: Automatic, User-Aligned Capability Selection and Adaptation for Web Agentscited by 0
  12. 2026X-Tree: Tokenizing Reusable Experience for Efficient Agent Generalizationcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Online Skill Learning for Web Agents via State-Grounded Dynamic Retrieval
  2. 2026SCAFFOLD: Self-Improving Web Agents via Recursive Parametric Skill Abstraction
  3. 2026SkillX: Automatically Constructing Skill Knowledge Bases for Agents
  4. 2024Large Language Models Can Self-Improve At Web Agent Tasks
  5. 2026WebFactory: Automated Compression of Foundational Language Intelligence into Grounded Web Agents
  6. 2026Trace2Skill: Distill Trajectory-Local Lessons into Transferable Agent Skills
  7. 2026MMG2Skill: Can Agents Distill In-the-Wild Guides into Self-Evolving Skills?
  8. 2026OpenSkillEval: Automatically Auditing the Open Skill Ecosystem for LLM Agents