mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

OpenClaw-Skill: Collective Skill Tree Search for Agentic Large Language Models

arXiv 2606.16774 ↗First posted 15 Jun 2026cs.AI cs.CLcited by 2

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent skill learning and evolution

Abstract (arXiv)

Equipping Large Language Model (LLM) agents with effective skills is crucial for solving complex tasks in real-world systems like OpenClaw. In this work, we aim to develop a framework that automatically constructs such reusable skills to enhance LLMs in tool use, multi-step reasoning, and dynamic environment interaction. To this end, we propose Collective Skill Tree Search (CSTS), a novel tree-search-based skill construction framework that constructs structured, diverse and generalizable tree of skills. The core idea of CSTS is to leverage collective intelligence to jointly search, identify and compose effective skills via two iterative phases: Collective Skill Node Generation (CSN-Gen) and Collective Skill Node Assessment (CSN-Assess). CSN-Gen exploits collective knowledge from multiple models to explore diverse candidate skills for each subtask, enabling comprehensive skill exploration. CSN-Assess employs multiple models as judges to evaluate and select skill nodes with two scoring mechanisms: (1) collective quality scoring that aggregates independent evaluations to produce a robust estimate of skill effectiveness, and (2) collective transferability scoring that explicitly verifies whether a skill generalizes well across different models. With CSTS, we construct a set of comprehensive tree of skills along with skill-augmented training data, enabling models to effectively learn and utilize skills. Besides, we introduce Collective Skill Reinforcement Learning, which actively selects multiple relevant skills from the tree to broaden solution-space exploration, avoid being trapped by a single skill and its resulting homogeneous or suboptimal solutions. As a result, our trained model, OpenClaw-Skill, exhibits outstanding agentic capabilities in long-horizon planning, tool use and generalization over challenging benchmarks.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent skill learning and evolution, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 39 of its 56 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 15 Jun 2026.

Builds on

39 of 56 references.

Closest ancestors · 9

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026SKILL0: In-Context Agentic Reinforcement Learning for Skill Internalization2 Apr
  2. 2026CoEvoSkills: Self-Evolving Agent Skills via Co-Evolutionary Verification2 Apr
  3. 2026Trace2Skill: Distill Trajectory-Local Lessons into Transferable Agent Skills26 Mar
  4. 2026EvoSkill: Automated Skill Discovery for Multi-Agent Systems3 Mar
  5. 2026SkillCraft: Can LLM Agents Learn to Use Tools Skillfully?28 Feb
  6. 2026SoK: Agentic Skills -- Beyond Tool Use in LLM Agents24 Feb
  7. 2026SkillsBench: Benchmarking How Well Agent Skills Work Across Diverse Tasks13 Feb
  8. 2026Agent Skills for Large Language Models: Architecture, Acquisition, Security, and the Path Forward12 Feb
  9. 2026SkillRL: Evolving Agents via Recursive Skill-Augmented Reinforcement Learning9 Feb

Other references · 30

  1. 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,971
  2. 2025Qwen3 Technical Reportcited by 8,820
  3. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
  4. 2024Qwen2.5 Technical Reportcited by 4,942
  5. 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,182
  6. 2025Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilitiescited by 3,796
  7. 2023Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Modelscited by 3,211
  8. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,242
  9. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,191
  10. 2024Qwen2 Technical Reportcited by 2,120
  11. 2025gpt-oss-120b & gpt-oss-20b Model Cardcited by 1,386
  12. 2024OSWorld: Benchmarking Multimodal Agents for Open-Ended Tasks in Real Computer Environmentscited by 1,195
18 more
  1. 2024DeepSeek-V2: A Strong, Economical, and Efficient Mixture-of-Experts Language Modelcited by 1,135
  2. 2024DeepSeekMoE: Towards Ultimate Expert Specialization in Mixture-of-Experts Language Modelscited by 867
  3. 2024DeepSeek LLM: Scaling Open-Source Language Models with Longtermismcited by 642
  4. 2023Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Modelscited by 574
  5. 2024WebVoyager: Building an End-to-End Web Agent with Large Multimodal Modelscited by 438
  6. 2021Mastering Atari Games with Limited Datacited by 237
  7. 2025Large Language Model Agent: A Survey on Methodology, Applications and Challengescited by 205
  8. 2025The Landscape of Agentic Reinforcement Learning for LLMs: A Surveycited by 205
  9. 2024Mulberry: Empowering MLLM with o1-like Reasoning and Reflection via Collective Monte Carlo Tree Searchcited by 175
  10. 2024Tree Search for Language Model Agentscited by 151
  11. 2026AutoSkill: Experience-Driven Lifelong Learning via Skill Self-Evolutioncited by 115
  12. 2025Agentic Large Language Models, a surveycited by 108
  13. 2026OpenClaw-RL: Train Any Agent Simply by Talkingcited by 90
  14. 2026XSkill: Continual Learning from Experience and Skills in Multimodal Agentscited by 75
  15. 2025NVIDIA Nemotron 3: Efficient and Open Intelligencecited by 65
  16. 2024A Survey on LLM-based Multi-Agent System: Recent Advances and New Frontiers in Applicationcited by 55
  17. 2026SkillFlow:Benchmarking Lifelong Skill Discovery and Evolution for Autonomous Agentscited by 25
  18. 2026ClawGym: A Scalable Framework for Building Effective Claw Agentscited by 15

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. 2026SkillClaw: Let Skills Evolve Collectively with Agentic Evolver
  2. 2026SkillCorpus: Consolidating and Evaluating the Open Skill Ecosystem for Real-World LLM Agents
  3. 2026OpenSkillEval: Automatically Auditing the Open Skill Ecosystem for LLM Agents
  4. 2026SkillCommit: Evolving Agent Skills through Behaviorally Validated Scope Expansion
  5. 2026GraSP: Graph-Structured Skill Compositions for LLM Agents
  6. 2025Automated Skill Discovery for Language Agents through Exploration and Iterative Feedback
  7. 2026SkillAudit: From Fixed-Suite Benchmarking to Skill-Centered Assessment
  8. 2026SkillTrace: Traversing a Query-Skill Graph for Composable LLM Agents