Workspace Optimization: How to Train Your Agent
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent skill learning and evolution
Abstract (arXiv)
Modern agents built on frontier language models often cannot adapt their weights. What, then, remains trainable? We argue it is the agent's workspace, the structured external substrate it reads, writes, and tests; we call its evolution workspace optimization. Workspace optimization targets hard multi-turn environments where a frontier model has strong priors but cannot solve the task in a single shot, so the agent must learn through interaction. We propose a principled way to evolve the workspace, mirroring the structure of weight-space training: artifacts in place of parameters, evidence in place of data, counterexamples in place of losses, and textual feedback in place of gradients. We instantiate the idea in DreamTeam, a multi-agent harness for ARC-AGI-3 whose roles build an executable world model, plan, hypothesize, probe, strategize, and route failures. On the current 25-game ARC-AGI-3 public set under the official scoring protocol and averaged over two independent runs, DreamTeam improves the SOTA protocol-matched agent's score from 36% to 38.4%, while using 31% fewer environment actions per game.
Key facts. Cited by 7 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 32 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 10 May 2026.
Builds on
32 of 51 references.
References · 32
- 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
- 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,500
- 2023Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedbackcited by 3,317
- 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Frameworkcited by 1,761
- 2019Mastering Atari, Go, Chess and Shogi by Planning with a Learned Modelcited by 1,327
- 2023MemGPT: Towards LLMs as Operating Systemscited by 1,295
- 2023Mastering Diverse Domains through World Modelscited by 1,193
- 2023Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Modelcited by 846
- 2024Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challengescited by 752
- 2024Genie: Generative Interactive Environmentscited by 706
- 2023Cognitive Architectures for Language Agentscited by 422
- 2025Darwin Godel Machine: Open-Ended Evolution of Self-Improving Agentscited by 294
20 more
- 2024Diffusion for World Modeling: Visual Details Matter in Ataricited by 285
- 2024Diffusion Models Are Real-Time Game Enginescited by 282
- 2025ReasoningBank: Scaling Agent Self-Evolving with Reasoning Memorycited by 253
- 2026Meta-Harness: End-to-End Optimization of Model Harnessescited by 248
- 2025Which Agent Causes Task Failures and When? On Automated Failure Attribution of LLM Multi-Agent Systemscited by 170
- 2025Dynamic Cheatsheet: Test-Time Learning with Adaptive Memorycited by 146
- 2024Is Your LLM Secretly a World Model of the Internet? Model-Based Planning for Web Agentscited by 144
- 2024BALROG: Benchmarking Agentic LLM and VLM Reasoning On Gamescited by 141
- 2023Hypothesis Search: Inductive Reasoning with Language Modelscited by 119
- 2025Memento: Fine-tuning LLM Agents without Fine-tuning LLMscited by 119
- 2023From Word Models to World Models: Translating from Natural Language to the Probabilistic Language of Thoughtcited by 118
- 2025Recursive Language Modelscited by 94
- 2023Test-Time Training on Nearest Neighbors for Large Language Modelscited by 82
- 2025Self-Improving Language Models for Evolutionary Program Synthesis: A Case Study on ARC-AGIcited by 34
- 2025Orak: A Foundational Benchmark for Training and Evaluating LLM Agents on Diverse Video Gamescited by 30
- 2026ARC-AGI-3: A New Challenge for Frontier Agentic Intelligencecited by 29
- 2025ArcMemo: Abstract Reasoning Composition with Lifelong LLM Memorycited by 22
- 2025Learning to Orchestrate Agents in Natural Language with the Conductorcited by 22
- 2025WorldLLM: Improving LLMs' world modeling using curiosity-driven theory-makingcited by 10
- 2025Graph-Based Exploration for ARC-AGI-3 Interactive Reasoning Taskscited by 6
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 7.
7 papers.
- 2026Adapting the Interface, Not the Model: Runtime Harness Adaptation for Deterministic LLM Agentscited by 22
- 2026Recursive Harness Self-Improvementcited by 22
- 2026OPINE-World: Programmatic World Modeling with Ontology-error-Prioritized Interactive Exploration for ARC-AGI-3cited by 7
- 2026Tycho: Active Abstraction with Programmatic World Models for ARC-AGI-3cited by 5
- 2026Do Coding Agents Need Executable World Models, Simplification, and Verification to Solve ARC-AGI-3?cited by 3
- 2026NVIDIA-labs OO Agents: Native Python Object-Oriented Agentscited by 3
- 2026Memento 3: Model-Based Recursive Self-Improvement through Reflective Rulebookscited by 0
- 2026Memento 3: Model-Based Recursive Self-Improvement through Reflective Rulebooks8 Oct 2026
- 2026Tycho: Active Abstraction with Programmatic World Models for ARC-AGI-330 Jul 2026
- 2026NVIDIA-labs OO Agents: Native Python Object-Oriented Agents22 Jul 2026
- 2026Recursive Harness Self-Improvement17 Jul 2026
- 2026Do Coding Agents Need Executable World Models, Simplification, and Verification to Solve ARC-AGI-3?16 Jul 2026
- 2026OPINE-World: Programmatic World Modeling with Ontology-error-Prioritized Interactive Exploration for ARC-AGI-31 Jul 2026
- 2026Adapting the Interface, Not the Model: Runtime Harness Adaptation for Deterministic LLM Agents21 May 2026
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- 2026OR-Space: A Full-Lifecycle Workspace Benchmark for Industrial Optimization Agents
- 2026SkillVine: Agent Skill Evolution via Branching Exploration
- 2026FlowEvo: Self-Evolving Agents through the Co-Evolution of Workflows and Executable Skills
- 2026MetaSkill-Evolve: Recursive Self-Improvement of LLM Agents via Two-Timescale Meta-Skill Evolution
- 2026COBRA-Skills: Contextual Bandit-Guided Evolution for Agent Skill Optimization
- 2026EvolveNet: Collaborative Harness Evolution for Agent Self-Improvement
- 2026SkillClaw: Let Skills Evolve Collectively with Agentic Evolver
- 2026FreeEvolve: Learning to Evolve Beyond Fixed Loops