mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

SKT: Skill-Use Training at Scale via Verified Synthetic Data Generation

arXiv 2608.02287 ↗First posted 3 Aug 2026cs.AIcited by 3

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

Abstract (arXiv)

Agent skills have become an important mechanism for equipping language-model agents with reusable procedural knowledge. However, providing skills alone does not guarantee that current models can effectively identify, apply, and coordinate them. To improve skill-use capabilities, we introduce SKT, a verified data synthesis pipeline that constructs skill-grounded tasks and executable trajectories from large collections of agent skills. SKT selects suitable single-skill and multi-skill configurations, synthesizes tasks through rule-based and agent-based verification with feedback-guided repair, and retains only successful trajectories that substantially use every required skill. Using 2,000 public skills, SKT produces 4,000 task packages and 27,164 verified trajectories. Based on the same pipeline and a disjoint test pool, we further construct SkillEval, a held-out executable benchmark for evaluating skill use. Experiments across diverse models, benchmarks, and agent harnesses show that supervised fine-tuning on SKT-generated trajectories consistently improves skill-use performance. Verification ablations, cross-harness evaluation, and scaling experiments further demonstrate that these gains depend on high-quality supervision, extend beyond a single agent interface, and increase with broader skill coverage. Together, these results establish verified data synthesis as an effective and scalable approach for skill-use training.

Key facts. Cited by 3 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 24 of its 32 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 Aug 2026.

Builds on

24 of 32 references.

Closest ancestors · 13

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026Skill-to-LoRA: From Using Skills to Learning Behaviors for Token-Efficient LLM Agents15 Jun
  2. 2026LatentSkill: From In-Context Textual Skills to In-Weight Latent Skills for LLM Agents4 Jun
  3. 2026SIRI: Self-Internalizing Reinforcement Learning with Intrinsic Skills for LLM Agent Training1 Jun
  4. 2026Skill0.5: Joint Skill Internalization and Utilization for Out-of-Distribution Generalization in Agentic Reinforcement Learning27 May
  5. 2026SKILLC: Learning Autonomous Skill Internalization in LLM Agents via Contrastive Credit Assignment27 May
  6. 2026Terminal-World: Scaling Terminal-Agent Environments via Agent Skills20 May
  7. 2026Skill-R1: Agent Skill Evolution via Reinforcement Learning10 May
  8. 2026Skill1: Unified Evolution of Skill-Augmented Agents via Reinforcement Learning7 May
  9. 2026SKILL0: In-Context Agentic Reinforcement Learning for Skill Internalization2 Apr
  10. 2026Organizing, Orchestrating, and Benchmarking Agent Skills at Ecosystem Scale2 Mar
  11. 2026SkillsBench: Benchmarking How Well Agent Skills Work Across Diverse Tasks13 Feb
  12. 2026SkillRL: Evolving Agents via Recursive Skill-Augmented Reinforcement Learning9 Feb
1 more
  1. 2025Reinforcement Learning for Self-Improving Agent with Skill Library18 Dec

Other references · 11

  1. 2026DeepSeek-V4: Towards Highly Efficient Million-Token Context Intelligencecited by 1,040
  2. 2026GLM-5: from Vibe Coding to Agentic Engineeringcited by 587
  3. 2026Gemma 4 Technical Reportcited by 259
  4. 2026SWE-Skills-Bench: Do Agent Skills Actually Help in Real-World Software Engineering?cited by 82
  5. 2026The MiniMax-M2 Series: Mini Activations Unleashing Max Real-World Intelligencecited by 61
  6. 2026TermiGen: High-Fidelity Environment and Robust Trajectory Synthesis for Terminal Agentscited by 29
  7. 2026Toward Scalable Terminal Task Synthesis via Skill Graphscited by 22
  8. 2026CLI-Universe: Towards Verifiable Task Synthesis Engine for Terminal Agentscited by 12
  9. 2026MolClaw: An Autonomous Agent with Hierarchical Skills for Drug Molecule Evaluation, Screening, and Optimizationcited by 7
  10. 2026Towards Compositional Generalization of LLMs via Skill Taxonomy Guided Data Synthesiscited by 4
  11. 2026Parametric Skillscited by 3

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

3 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026SkillGym: Training Skill-Use Agents with Automatic Verifiable Environment Generation
  2. 2026Skill Coverage: A Test Adequacy Metric for Agent Skills
  3. 2026SPT: Skills as Pre-Training Data for Agentic Language Models
  4. 2026Grounded Skill Synthesis from Code at Scale for Agentic Intelligence
  5. 2026Agent Skills for Large Language Models: Architecture, Acquisition, Security, and the Path Forward
  6. 2026Trace2Skill: Distill Trajectory-Local Lessons into Transferable Agent Skills
  7. 2026SkillCorpus: Consolidating and Evaluating the Open Skill Ecosystem for Real-World LLM Agents
  8. 2026SkillJuror: Measuring How Agent Skill Organization Changes Runtime Behavior