mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Skill-RM: Unifying Heterogeneous Evaluation Criteria via Agent Skill

arXiv 2606.03980 ↗First posted 2 Jun 2026cs.LG cs.CLcited by 3

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Reinforcement learning for LLM agents

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Reward models (RMs) provide critical feedback signals for LLM post-training, notably in reinforced fine-tuning (RFT) and reinforcement learning (RL) pipelines. However, current reward evaluation relies on heterogeneous criteria such as rule-based verifiers, ground-truth references, procedural checklists, and complex rubrics, where a unified mechanism to integrate all types of evidence remains unexplored. To this end, we propose Skill Reward Model (Skill-RM), a unified framework that reformulates reward modeling as the execution of a reusable Reward-Evaluation Skill. By treating reward computation as a structured agentic task, Skill-RM provides a consistent interface to orchestrate heterogeneous resources, dynamically selecting and aggregating evidence tailored to the specific requirements of each input. This approach enables the reward model to move beyond static evaluation, ensuring consistency and transparency across diverse tasks. Extensive experiments on reward benchmarks and downstream applications, including best-of-N selection and reinforcement learning, demonstrate that Skill-RM consistently outperforms traditional judge baselines. Our findings suggest that Skill-RM not only provides a unified solution for reward modeling but also achieves superior performance through the strategic and dynamic orchestration of evidence. The code is at https://github.com/Qwen-Applications/Skill-RM.

Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning for LLM agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 58 of its 68 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 2 Jun 2026.

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58 of 68 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

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  2. 2025Agentic Reward Modeling: Integrating Human Preferences with Verifiable Correctness Signals for Reliable Reward Systems26 Feb
  3. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Models25 May

Other references · 55

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Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

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  7. 2025Leveraging LLMs for reward function design in reinforcement learning control tasks
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