mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Evolving Ensemble of Agents

arXiv 2605.09018 ↗First posted 9 May 2026cs.NE cs.AI cs.LGcited by 2

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Software engineering coding agents

Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce the Evolving Ensemble of Agents (EvE), a decentralized framework that organizes existing, highly capable coding agents into a live, co-evolving system for algorithmic discovery. Rather than reinventing the wheel within the ``LLMs as optimizers'' paradigm, EvE fixes the base agent substrate and focuses entirely on evolving the cumulative guidance and skills that dictate agent behaviors. By maintaining two co-evolving populations, namely functional code solvers and agent guidance states, the system evaluates agents through a synchronous race, updating their empirical Elo ratings based on the marginal gains they contribute to the current solver state. When applied to a research bottleneck in In-Context Operator Networks (ICON), EvE autonomously discovered a robust rescale-then-interpolate mechanism that enables reliable example-count generalization. Crucially, controlled ablations reveal the absolute necessity of stage-dependent agent adaptation to navigate the shifting search landscapes of complex codebases. Compared to variants driven by a fixed initial agent or even a frozen ``best-evolved'' agent, EvE uniquely avoids phase mismatch, demonstrating that organizing agents into a self-revising ensemble is the fundamental driver for breaking through static performance ceilings.

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 24 of its 35 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 May 2026.

Builds on

24 of 35 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025Huxley-G"odel Machine: Human-Level Coding Agent Development by an Approximation of the Optimal Self-Improving Machine24 Oct
  2. 2025CodeEvolve: an open source evolutionary coding agent for algorithmic discovery and optimization15 Oct
  3. 2025AlphaEvolve: A coding agent for scientific and algorithmic discovery16 Jun
  4. 2025A Self-Improving Coding Agent21 Apr

Other references · 20

  1. 2023Large Language Models as Optimizerscited by 864
  2. 2023Promptbreeder: Self-Referential Self-Improvement Via Prompt Evolutioncited by 551
  3. 2025Darwin Godel Machine: Open-Ended Evolution of Self-Improving Agentscited by 356
  4. 2024Evolution of Heuristics: Towards Efficient Automatic Algorithm Design Using Large Language Modelcited by 268
  5. 2023Self-Taught Optimizer (STOP): Recursively Self-Improving Code Generationcited by 148
  6. 2020AutoML-Zero: Evolving Machine Learning Algorithms From Scratchcited by 143
  7. 2022Evolution through Large Modelscited by 134
  8. 2026CoEvoSkills: Self-Evolving Agent Skills via Co-Evolutionary Verificationcited by 128
  9. 2026Learning to Discover at Test Timecited by 115
  10. 2023In-Context Operator Learning with Data Prompts for Differential Equation Problemscited by 101
  11. 2024A Systematic Survey on Large Language Models for Algorithm Designcited by 69
  12. 2026AdaEvolve: Adaptive LLM Driven Zeroth-Order Optimizationcited by 60
8 more
  1. 2026Group-Evolving Agents: Open-Ended Self-Improvement via Experience Sharingcited by 36
  2. 2024PDE Generalization of In-Context Operator Networks: A Study on 1D Scalar Nonlinear Conservation Lawscited by 31
  3. 2025Probabilistic operator learning: generative modeling and uncertainty quantification for foundation models of differential equationscited by 10
  4. 2026Escher-Loop: Mutual Evolution by Closed-Loop Self-Referential Optimizationcited by 8
  5. 2025Solving Optimal Execution Problems via In-Context Operator Networkscited by 4
  6. 2026TerraLingua: Emergence and Analysis of Open-endedness in LLM Ecologiescited by 4
  7. 2025Continuum Transformers Perform In-Context Learning by Operator Gradient Descentcited by 3
  8. 2026Graph In-Context Operator Networks for Generalizable Spatiotemporal Predictioncited by 3

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026What Do Evolutionary Coding Agents Evolve?
  2. 2026The Red Queen G"odel Machine: Co-Evolving Agents and Their Evaluators
  3. 2026SwarmResearch: Orchestrating Coding Agents for Open-Ended Discovery
  4. 2026AlgoEvo: Self-Evolving Agentic Search for Automated Algorithm Discovery
  5. 2025ATHENA: Agentic Team for Hierarchical Evolutionary Numerical Algorithms
  6. 2026Self-Evolving Coding Agents
  7. 2026CliffSearch: Structured Agentic Co-Evolution over Theory and Code for Scientific Algorithm Discovery
  8. 2026Agentic Harness Engineering: Observability-Driven Automatic Evolution of Coding-Agent Harnesses