# From Task-Guided Conversational Graphs to Goal-Oriented Dialogue Runtimes

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.23797 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.23797/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 49 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jun 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [MultiWOZ -- A Large-Scale Multi-Domain Wizard-of-Oz Dataset for Task-Oriented Dialogue Modelling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.00278/) (2018)
- [Towards Scalable Multi-domain Conversational Agents: The Schema-Guided Dialogue Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.05855/) (2019)
- [Task-Oriented Dialogue as Dataflow Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.11423/) (2020)
- [AI Agent Systems: Architectures, Applications, and Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.01743/) (2026)
- [Dialog2API: Task-Oriented Dialogue with API Description and Example Programs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09946/) (2022)
- [Governed Evolution of Agent Runtimes through Executable Operational Cognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.27328/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Knowledge-Centric Information Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.02609/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Graph and multi-agent orchestration frameworks make production large language model (LLM) workflows practical, but they do not by themselves solve conversational continuity when users maintain several interdependent objectives. This conceptual systems paper focuses on the high-complexity end of that design space, where goals can be suspended, resumed, revised, and invalidated by actions in other goals. We introduce the Goal-Oriented Dialogue Runtime (GODR), a framework-neutral design pattern that treats goals, task frames, lifecycle state, invalidation rules, and resumption contracts as first-class runtime objects while delegating bounded execution to graph runtimes, agents, tools, or application programming interfaces (APIs). GODR is not proposed as a replacement for workflow graphs in simple guided processes; it is intended for complex, multi-domain, interruptible conversations where objective continuity cannot be recovered reliably from agent identity, chat history, or execution-graph position alone. The paper formalizes the problem, proposes runtime objects and architecture-selection criteria, and frames evaluation as an agenda for future empirical validation rather than as a measured performance claim.