From Skill Text to Skill Structure: The Scheduling-Structural-Logical Representation for Agent Skills
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent skill learning and evolution
Abstract (arXiv)
Large language model (LLM) agents increasingly rely on reusable skills: capability packages that combine instructions, control flow, constraints, and tool calls. In current agent systems, however, skills are still represented by text-heavy artifacts, mainly SKILL{.}md-style documents whose machine-usable evidence remains embedded largely in natural-language descriptions. As a result, skill-centered agent systems face a representation problem: both managing skill collections and using skills during agent execution require reasoning over invocation interfaces, execution structure, and concrete side effects, but these signals are often entangled in a single textual surface. An explicit representation of skill knowledge may therefore help make these artifacts easier for machines to acquire and leverage. Drawing on Memory Organization Packets, Script Theory, and Conceptual Dependency from Schank and Abelson's classical work on cognitive linguistic representation, we introduce what is, to our knowledge, the first structured representation for agent skill artifacts that disentangles skill-level scheduling signals, scene-level execution structure, and logic-level action/resource-use evidence: the Scheduling-Structural-Logical (SSL) representation. We instantiate SSL with an LLM-based normalizer and evaluate SSL-derived representations in two tasks, Skill Discovery and Risk Assessment. The experiment shows that SSL significantly outperforms the text-only baselines: in Skill Discovery, MRR@50 improves from 0.649 to 0.729; in Risk Assessment, macro F1 improves from 0.409 to 0.509. These findings suggest that an explicit, source-grounded structure can make agent skills easier to search and review, positioning SSL as a practical step toward more inspectable, reusable, and operationally actionable skill representations, rather than a finished standard or end-to-end skill-management mechanism.
Key facts. Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent skill learning and evolution, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 34 of its 44 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 27 Apr 2026.
Builds on
34 of 44 references.
Closest ancestors · 5
Same direction, newest first
- 2026Graph-of-Skills: Dependency-Aware Structural Retrieval for Massive Agent Skills7 Apr
- 2026SkillX: Automatically Constructing Skill Knowledge Bases for Agents6 Apr
- 2026SKILL0: In-Context Agentic Reinforcement Learning for Skill Internalization2 Apr
- 2026SkillRouter: Skill Routing for LLM Agents at Scale23 Mar
- 2026Agent Skills for Large Language Models: Architecture, Acquisition, Security, and the Path Forward12 Feb
Other references · 29
- 2019Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networkscited by 9,049
- 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,072
- 2020Dense Passage Retrieval for Open-Domain Question Answeringcited by 3,779
- 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,081
- 2023ToolLLM: Facilitating Large Language Models to Master 16000+ Real-world APIscited by 1,880
- 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,422
- 2023Not what you've signed up for: Compromising Real-World LLM-Integrated Applications with Indirect Prompt Injectioncited by 1,339
- 2023Gorilla: Large Language Model Connected with Massive APIscited by 1,302
- 2021BEIR: A Heterogenous Benchmark for Zero-shot Evaluation of Information Retrieval Modelscited by 1,225
- 2025Qwen3 Embedding: Advancing Text Embedding and Reranking Through Foundation Modelscited by 1,175
- 2025DeepSeek-V3.2: Pushing the Frontier of Open Large Language Modelscited by 755
- 2023Identifying the Risks of LM Agents with an LM-Emulated Sandboxcited by 514
17 more
- 2024AgentHarm: A Benchmark for Measuring Harmfulness of LLM Agentscited by 406
- 2024Agent Security Bench (ASB): Formalizing and Benchmarking Attacks and Defenses in LLM-based Agentscited by 341
- 2025Large Language Model Agent: A Survey on Methodology, Applications and Challengescited by 194
- 2024EASYTOOL: Enhancing LLM-based Agents with Concise Tool Instructioncited by 153
- 2023CRAFT: Customizing LLMs by Creating and Retrieving from Specialized Toolsetscited by 122
- 2026Agent Skills in the Wild: An Empirical Study of Security Vulnerabilities at Scalecited by 94
- 2025Prompt Flow Integrity to Prevent Privilege Escalation in LLM Agentscited by 81
- 2026Taming Various Privilege Escalation in LLM-Based Agent Systems: A Mandatory Access Control Frameworkcited by 50
- 2026SkillNet: Create, Evaluate, and Connect AI Skillscited by 48
- 2025Retrieval Models Aren't Tool-Savvy: Benchmarking Tool Retrieval for Large Language Modelscited by 46
- 2024ToolRerank: Adaptive and Hierarchy-Aware Reranking for Tool Retrievalcited by 40
- 2026SkillAttack: Automated Red Teaming of Agent Skills through Attack Path Refinementcited by 24
- 2026SkillSieve: A Hierarchical Triage Framework for Detecting Malicious AI Agent Skillscited by 18
- 2025Tools are under-documented: Simple Document Expansion Boosts Tool Retrievalcited by 12
- 2026The Evolution of Tool Use in LLM Agents: From Single-Tool Call to Multi-Tool Orchestrationcited by 11
- 2026Towards Secure Agent Skills: Architecture, Threat Taxonomy, and Security Analysiscited by 11
- 2025MassTool: A Multi-Task Search-Based Tool Retrieval Framework for Large Language Modelscited by 3
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 15.
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- 2026Agent Skill Evaluation and Evolution: Frameworks and Benchmarkscited by 6
- 2026Dynamic Agent Skills: A Lifecycle Survey and Taxonomy of Evolving Skill Librariescited by 6
- 2026Skill0.5: Joint Skill Internalization and Utilization for Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 5
- 2026Task Decomposition-Guided Reranking for Adaptive Agent Skill Retrievalcited by 4
- 2026Ratchet: How Reliable Must an LLM Judge Be to Retire a Skill?cited by 3
- 2026Skill-RM: Unifying Heterogeneous Evaluation Criteria via Agent Skillcited by 3
- 2026AIP: A Graph Representation for Learning and Governing Agent Skillscited by 3
- 2026ColluSkill: Adversarial Cross-Skill Composition for Evading Agent Skill Scannerscited by 3
- 2026ObjectGraph: From Document Injection to Knowledge Traversal -- A Native File Format for the Agentic Eracited by 1
- 2026SkillZip: Contract-Preserving Graph Compression for Scalable Agent Skill Librariescited by 1
- 2026SkillEval: Decomposing Agent Skill Quality into Interpretable Signalscited by 1
- 2026Workflow-to-Skill: Skill Creation via Routing-Workflow-Semantics-Attachments Decompositioncited by 0
3 more
- 2026Compression, structure, and executor capability: a controlled real-cost decomposition of language-model agent skill optimisationcited by 0
- 2026Grounded Skill Synthesis from Code at Scale for Agentic Intelligencecited by 0
- 2026GraphSkillEvo: Evolutionary Optimization of Graph-Structured Agent Skillscited by 0
- 2026GraphSkillEvo: Evolutionary Optimization of Graph-Structured Agent Skills18 Sep 2026
- 2026Grounded Skill Synthesis from Code at Scale for Agentic Intelligence4 Sep 2026
- 2026ColluSkill: Adversarial Cross-Skill Composition for Evading Agent Skill Scanners10 Aug 2026
- 2026SkillEval: Decomposing Agent Skill Quality into Interpretable Signals7 Aug 2026
- 2026SkillZip: Contract-Preserving Graph Compression for Scalable Agent Skill Libraries6 Aug 2026
- 2026Dynamic Agent Skills: A Lifecycle Survey and Taxonomy of Evolving Skill Libraries11 Jul 2026
- 2026Task Decomposition-Guided Reranking for Adaptive Agent Skill Retrieval7 Jul 2026
- 2026Compression, structure, and executor capability: a controlled real-cost decomposition of language-model agent skill optimisation3 Jul 2026
- 2026Agent Skill Evaluation and Evolution: Frameworks and Benchmarks9 Jun 2026
- 2026Workflow-to-Skill: Skill Creation via Routing-Workflow-Semantics-Attachments Decomposition5 Jun 2026
- 2026AIP: A Graph Representation for Learning and Governing Agent Skills3 Jun 2026
- 2026Skill-RM: Unifying Heterogeneous Evaluation Criteria via Agent Skill2 Jun 2026
3 more
- 2026Skill0.5: Joint Skill Internalization and Utilization for Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Agentic Reinforcement Learning27 May 2026
- 2026Ratchet: How Reliable Must an LLM Judge Be to Retire a Skill?21 May 2026
- 2026ObjectGraph: From Document Injection to Knowledge Traversal -- A Native File Format for the Agentic Era30 Apr 2026
- 2026Agent Skill Evaluation and Evolution: Frameworks and Benchmarkscited by 6
- 2026Dynamic Agent Skills: A Lifecycle Survey and Taxonomy of Evolving Skill Librariescited by 6
- 2026Skill0.5: Joint Skill Internalization and Utilization for Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 5
- 2026Task Decomposition-Guided Reranking for Adaptive Agent Skill Retrievalcited by 4
- 2026Skill-RM: Unifying Heterogeneous Evaluation Criteria via Agent Skillcited by 3
- 2026ColluSkill: Adversarial Cross-Skill Composition for Evading Agent Skill Scannerscited by 3
- 2026ObjectGraph: From Document Injection to Knowledge Traversal -- A Native File Format for the Agentic Eracited by 1
- 2026SkillZip: Contract-Preserving Graph Compression for Scalable Agent Skill Librariescited by 1
- 2026Workflow-to-Skill: Skill Creation via Routing-Workflow-Semantics-Attachments Decompositioncited by 0
- 2026Compression, structure, and executor capability: a controlled real-cost decomposition of language-model agent skill optimisationcited by 0
- 2026Grounded Skill Synthesis from Code at Scale for Agentic Intelligencecited by 0
- 2026GraphSkillEvo: Evolutionary Optimization of Graph-Structured Agent Skillscited by 0
- 2026GraphSkillEvo: Evolutionary Optimization of Graph-Structured Agent Skills18 Sep 2026
- 2026Grounded Skill Synthesis from Code at Scale for Agentic Intelligence4 Sep 2026
- 2026ColluSkill: Adversarial Cross-Skill Composition for Evading Agent Skill Scanners10 Aug 2026
- 2026SkillZip: Contract-Preserving Graph Compression for Scalable Agent Skill Libraries6 Aug 2026
- 2026Dynamic Agent Skills: A Lifecycle Survey and Taxonomy of Evolving Skill Libraries11 Jul 2026
- 2026Task Decomposition-Guided Reranking for Adaptive Agent Skill Retrieval7 Jul 2026
- 2026Compression, structure, and executor capability: a controlled real-cost decomposition of language-model agent skill optimisation3 Jul 2026
- 2026Agent Skill Evaluation and Evolution: Frameworks and Benchmarks9 Jun 2026
- 2026Workflow-to-Skill: Skill Creation via Routing-Workflow-Semantics-Attachments Decomposition5 Jun 2026
- 2026Skill-RM: Unifying Heterogeneous Evaluation Criteria via Agent Skill2 Jun 2026
- 2026Skill0.5: Joint Skill Internalization and Utilization for Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Agentic Reinforcement Learning27 May 2026
- 2026ObjectGraph: From Document Injection to Knowledge Traversal -- A Native File Format for the Agentic Era30 Apr 2026
Similar, not cited
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- 2026Subagents vs Agent Skills: Executing Reusable Knowledge for Long-Horizon Agentic Tasks
- 2026SkillJuror: Measuring How Agent Skill Organization Changes Runtime Behavior
- 2026A Comprehensive Survey on Agent Skills: Taxonomy, Techniques, and Applications
- 2026SkillCorpus: Consolidating and Evaluating the Open Skill Ecosystem for Real-World LLM Agents
- 2026Skill-Use: Can LLMs Actually Use Skills in Agentic Harnesses?
- 2026Rep2Skill: Representation-Guided Skill Self-Evolution for LLM Agents
- 2026Agent Skills: A Data-Driven Analysis of Claude Skills for Extending Large Language Model Functionality
- 2026LatentSkill: From In-Context Textual Skills to In-Weight Latent Skills for LLM Agents