mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

GenClaw: Code-Driven Agentic Image Generation

arXiv 2605.30248 ↗First posted 28 May 2026cs.CVcited by 10

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Multimodal and embodied agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Image generation models have evolved from text-conditioned pixel synthesis toward multimodal agents endowed with visual comprehension and tool invocation capabilities. Yet, existing agents remain at the mercy of underlying black-box image models. Their workflow is trapped in a repetitive cycle of prompt rewriting for generation refinement, leaving them with no mechanism to directly manipulate the canvas. In essence, the potential of LLMs to serve as a genuine "brush" for precise visual construction remains largely untapped. In this paper, we propose GenClaw, a code-driven agentic image generation paradigm that empowers the agent to create like a human artist: first conceptualizing, then sketching, and finally coloring. Specifically, the agent first constructs the conceptual knowledge and context through search and reasoning. It then utilizes code (e.g., SVG, HTML, ThreeJS) to render executable visual sketches. Finally, it employs an image generation model to supplement textures, materials, and photorealism. In this workflow, code serves as a controllable intermediate canvas bridging linguistic reasoning and pixel synthesis, seamlessly integrating programmatic logic with the visual expressiveness of generative models. By transforming image generation from a black-box paradigm into a staged process akin to authentic human creation, GenClaw offers a step toward for highly controllable and interpretable visual generation systems.

Key facts. Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 48 of its 60 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 May 2026.

Builds on

48 of 60 references.

Closest ancestors · 6

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026Unify-Agent: A Unified Multimodal Agent for World-Grounded Image Synthesis31 Mar
  2. 2026Gen-Searcher: Reinforcing Agentic Search for Image Generation30 Mar
  3. 2026Kimi K2.5: Visual Agentic Intelligence2 Feb
  4. 2026Mind-Brush: Integrating Agentic Cognitive Search and Reasoning into Image Generation2 Feb
  5. 2026GenAgent: Scaling Text-to-Image Generation via Agentic Multimodal Reasoning26 Jan
  6. 2025An LLM-LVLM Driven Agent for Iterative and Fine-Grained Image Editing24 Aug

Other references · 42

  1. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,694
  2. 2023Segment Anythingcited by 8,158
  3. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,539
  4. 2022Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,603
  5. 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 5,466
  6. 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,290
  7. 2024Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,094
  8. 2025Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilitiescited by 3,655
  9. 2023InternVL: Scaling up Vision Foundation Models and Aligning for Generic Visual-Linguistic Taskscited by 2,534
  10. 2025Qwen-Image Technical Reportcited by 973
  11. 2025FLUX.1 Kontext: Flow Matching for In-Context Image Generation and Editing in Latent Spacecited by 960
  12. 2026DeepSeek-V4: Towards Highly Efficient Million-Token Context Intelligencecited by 877
30 more
  1. 2025Emerging Properties in Unified Multimodal Pretrainingcited by 855
  2. 2025Janus-Pro: Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generation with Data and Model Scalingcited by 787
  3. 2025BLIP3-o: A Family of Fully Open Unified Multimodal Models-Architecture, Training and Datasetcited by 363
  4. 2025Z-Image: An Efficient Image Generation Foundation Model with Single-Stream Diffusion Transformercited by 247
  5. 2025Seedream 4.0: Toward Next-generation Multimodal Image Generationcited by 233
  6. 2025ImgEdit: A Unified Image Editing Dataset and Benchmarkcited by 225
  7. 2025T2I-R1: Reinforcing Image Generation with Collaborative Semantic-level and Token-level CoTcited by 162
  8. 2025Emu3.5: Native Multimodal Models are World Learnerscited by 119
  9. 2025X-Omni: Reinforcement Learning Makes Discrete Autoregressive Image Generative Models Great Againcited by 105
  10. 2025Echo-4o: Harnessing the Power of GPT-4o Synthetic Images for Improved Image Generationcited by 95
  11. 2025Lumina-Image 2.0: A Unified and Efficient Image Generative Frameworkcited by 93
  12. 2025Uniworld-V2: Reinforce Image Editing with Diffusion Negative-aware Finetuning and MLLM Implicit Feedbackcited by 78
  13. 2025OmniSVG: A Unified Scalable Vector Graphics Generation Modelcited by 71
  14. 2025Spot the Fake: Large Multimodal Model-Based Synthetic Image Detection with Artifact Explanationcited by 66
  15. 2024LOKI: A Comprehensive Synthetic Data Detection Benchmark using Large Multimodal Modelscited by 51
  16. 2025PromptEnhancer: A Simple Approach to Enhance Text-to-Image Models via Chain-of-Thought Prompt Rewritingcited by 38
  17. 2025JarvisEvo: Towards a Self-Evolving Photo Editing Agent with Synergistic Editor-Evaluator Optimizationcited by 30
  18. 2026LongCat-Next: Lexicalizing Modalities as Discrete Tokenscited by 30
  19. 2025Qwen-Image-Layered: Towards Inherent Editability via Layer Decompositioncited by 29
  20. 2024CrossViewDiff: A Cross-View Diffusion Model for Satellite-to-Street View Synthesiscited by 23
  21. 2025VCode: a Multimodal Coding Benchmark with SVG as Symbolic Visual Representationcited by 15
  22. 2026Think-Then-Generate: Reasoning-Aware Text-to-Image Diffusion with LLM Encoderscited by 15
  23. 2025DraCo: Draft as CoT for Text-to-Image Preview and Rare Concept Generationcited by 13
  24. 2025InternSVG: Towards Unified SVG Tasks with Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 12
  25. 2024Leveraging BEV Paradigm for Ground-to-Aerial Image Synthesiscited by 11
  26. 2025RealGen: Photorealistic Text-to-Image Generation via Detector-Guided Rewardscited by 11
  27. 2026CoCo: Code as CoT for Text-to-Image Preview and Rare Concept Generationcited by 6
  28. 2026SCOPE: Structured Decomposition and Conditional Skill Orchestration for Complex Image Generationcited by 6
  29. 2026CoCoEdit: Content-Consistent Image Editing via Region Regularized Reinforcement Learningcited by 3
  30. 2026Controlling Your Image via Simplified Vector Graphicscited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 10.

10 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

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  3. 2026GenEvolve: Self-Evolving Image Generation Agents via Tool-Orchestrated Visual Experience Distillation
  4. 2026ToolArtist: Tool-Using Unified Multimodal Models for Agentic Image Generation
  5. 2025CRAFT: Continuous Reasoning and Agentic Feedback Tuning for Multimodal Text-to-Image Generation
  6. 2026Visual Generation in the New Era: An Evolution from Atomic Mapping to Agentic World Modeling
  7. 2026GenPuzzle: Benchmarking Visual Reasoning in Image Generation Models
  8. 2026Socratic-Geo: Synthetic Data Generation and Geometric Reasoning via Multi-Agent Interaction