Robust Multi-Agent LLMs under Byzantine Faults
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks
Abstract (arXiv)
Large language model (LLM) agents increasingly collaborate over peer-to-peer networks to improve their reliability. However, these same interactions can also introduce vulnerability to unreliable or Byzantine agents that can propagate incorrect information and degrade overall system performance. To address this, we propose Self-Anchored Consensus (SAC), a fully decentralized filter-and-refine protocol in which agents iteratively exchange responses, locally evaluate and filter unreliable messages, and refine their own outputs. We present (F+1)-robustness conditions on the communication graph that ensure honest agents preserve and propagate reliable information despite Byzantine influence. Experiments across diverse open- and closed-weight LLMs on mathematical and commonsense reasoning benchmarks show that SAC effectively suppresses Byzantine influence and consistently improves performance across diverse communication topologies, whereas prior methods degrade significantly under Byzantine attacks.
Key facts. Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 22 of its 37 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 May 2026.
Builds on
22 of 37 references.
Closest ancestors · 5
Same direction, newest first
- 2025Rethinking the Reliability of Multi-agent System: A Perspective from Byzantine Fault Tolerance13 Nov
- 2025Byzantine-Robust Decentralized Coordination of LLM Agents20 Jul
- 2024Cut the Crap: An Economical Communication Pipeline for LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems3 Oct
- 2024Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challenges21 Jan
- 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework1 Aug
Other references · 17
- 2021Measuring Mathematical Problem Solving With the MATH Datasetcited by 5,371
- 2018Think you have Solved Question Answering? Try ARC, the AI2 Reasoning Challengecited by 4,886
- 2019HellaSwag: Can a Machine Really Finish Your Sentence?cited by 4,100
- 2023Let's Verify Step by Stepcited by 3,789
- 2019BoolQ: Exploring the Surprising Difficulty of Natural Yes/No Questionscited by 2,183
- 2018Can a Suit of Armor Conduct Electricity? A New Dataset for Open Book Question Answeringcited by 2,164
- 2023AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversationcited by 1,988
- 2023Improving Factuality and Reasoning in Language Models through Multiagent Debatecited by 1,784
- 2023Encouraging Divergent Thinking in Large Language Models through Multi-Agent Debatecited by 1,011
- 2023LLM-Adapters: An Adapter Family for Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning of Large Language Modelscited by 324
- 2023Evil Geniuses: Delving into the Safety of LLM-based Agentscited by 106
- 2024NetSafe: Exploring the Topological Safety of Multi-agent Networkscited by 29
5 more
- 2016Distributed Optimization Under Adversarial Nodescited by 20
- 2025A Weighted Byzantine Fault Tolerance Consensus Driven Trusted Multiple Large Language Models Networkcited by 9
- 2025Distributed Resilience-Aware Control in Multi-Robot Networkscited by 2
- 2019Determining r- and (r,s)-Robustness of Digraphs Using Mixed Integer Linear Programmingcited by 1
- 2025Minimal Construction of Graphs with Maximum Robustnesscited by 1
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 10.
10 papers.
- 2026SoK: When Safe Agents Fail Together: The Security of Multi Agent LLM Systemscited by 1
- 2026Certifiable Semantic Agreement Among LLM Agents: What the Admissibility Instrument Decidescited by 0
- 2026PRIMUS: Identity, Governance, and Verification for Multi-Agent Federationscited by 0
- 2026Connecting the Dots in Agentic AI Security: A Cross-Dimensional Threat Taxonomy, Evaluation Maturity, and Open Challengescited by 0
- 2026Fully Byzantine-Resilient Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 0
- 2026MeshHeal: Two-Timescale Self-Healing for Gray Failures in Decentralized LLM Agent Networkscited by 0
- 2026Reinforcement Learning of Communication in a Mesh of Small Language Modelscited by 0
- 2026Prefill-Free Cross-Family KV Cache Transfer for Heterogeneous Multi-Agent LLMscited by 0
- 2026Re-derivability Decides What a Staged Agent Pipeline Recovers After an Upstream Faultcited by 0
- 2026PANDA: A Decentralized Architecture with Flexible Orchestration for Scalable, Fault-Tolerant Multi-Agent Systemscited by 0
- 2026PANDA: A Decentralized Architecture with Flexible Orchestration for Scalable, Fault-Tolerant Multi-Agent Systems29 Sep 2026
- 2026Re-derivability Decides What a Staged Agent Pipeline Recovers After an Upstream Fault26 Sep 2026
- 2026Prefill-Free Cross-Family KV Cache Transfer for Heterogeneous Multi-Agent LLMs26 Sep 2026
- 2026Reinforcement Learning of Communication in a Mesh of Small Language Models24 Sep 2026
- 2026MeshHeal: Two-Timescale Self-Healing for Gray Failures in Decentralized LLM Agent Networks24 Sep 2026
- 2026Fully Byzantine-Resilient Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning22 Sep 2026
- 2026Connecting the Dots in Agentic AI Security: A Cross-Dimensional Threat Taxonomy, Evaluation Maturity, and Open Challenges20 Sep 2026
- 2026PRIMUS: Identity, Governance, and Verification for Multi-Agent Federations7 Sep 2026
- 2026SoK: When Safe Agents Fail Together: The Security of Multi Agent LLM Systems1 Sep 2026
- 2026Certifiable Semantic Agreement Among LLM Agents: What the Admissibility Instrument Decides5 Jun 2026
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
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- 2026Can AI Agents Agree?
- 2026Dynamic Trust-Aware Sparse Communication Topology for LLM-Based Multi-Agent Consensus
- 2026Graph-theoretic Agreement Framework for Multi-agent LLM Systems
- 2026Towards Adaptive, Scalable, and Robust Coordination of LLM Agents: A Dynamic Ad-Hoc Networking Perspective
- 2025Consensus Is All You Need: Gossip-Based Reasoning Among Large Language Models
- 2024IBGP: Imperfect Byzantine Generals Problem for Zero-Shot Robustness in Communicative Multi-Agent Systems
- 2026Byzantine Cheap Talk: Adversarial Resilience and Topology Effects in LLM Coordination Games