# ToolArtist: Tool-Using Unified Multimodal Models for Agentic Image Generation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.04436 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.04436/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 25 of its 48 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Aug 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Multimodal and embodied agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/multimodal-and-embodied-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 25 of 25)

- [DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.03300/) (2024)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Emerging Properties in Unified Multimodal Pretraining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.14683/) (2025)
- [PixArt-α: Fast Training of Diffusion Transformer for Photorealistic Text-to-Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.00426/) (2023)
- [LLMs-as-Judges: A Comprehensive Survey on LLM-based Evaluation Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.05579/) (2024)
- [BLIP3-o: A Family of Fully Open Unified Multimodal Models-Architecture, Training and Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.09568/) (2025)
- [Playground v2.5: Three Insights towards Enhancing Aesthetic Quality in Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17245/) (2024)
- [Re-Imagen: Retrieval-Augmented Text-to-Image Generator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14491/) (2022)
- [WISE: A World Knowledge-Informed Semantic Evaluation for Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.07265/) (2025)
- [Commonsense-T2I Challenge: Can Text-to-Image Generation Models Understand Commonsense?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07546/) (2024)
- [R1-Searcher++: Incentivizing the Dynamic Knowledge Acquisition of LLMs via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17005/) (2025)
- [GenAgent: Scaling Text-to-Image Generation via Agentic Multimodal Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.18543/) (2026)
- [ImageRAG: Dynamic Image Retrieval for Reference-Guided Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09411/) (2025)
- [WorldGenBench: A World-Knowledge-Integrated Benchmark for Reasoning-Driven Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01490/) (2025)
- [GenEvolve: Self-Evolving Image Generation Agents via Tool-Orchestrated Visual Experience Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21605/) (2026)
- [Unify-Agent: A Unified Multimodal Agent for World-Grounded Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.29620/) (2026)
- [T2I-FactualBench: Benchmarking the Factuality of Text-to-Image Models with Knowledge-Intensive Concepts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04300/) (2024)
- [Qwen-Image-Agent: Bridging the Context Gap in Real-World Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.26907/) (2026)
- [DLLM-Searcher: Adapting Diffusion Large Language Model for Search Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07035/) (2026)
- [Search Beyond What Can Be Taught: Evolving the Knowledge Boundary in Agentic Visual Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.05382/) (2026)
- [GenPilot: A Multi-Agent System for Test-Time Prompt Optimization in Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07217/) (2025)
- [KITTEN: A Knowledge-Intensive Evaluation of Image Generation on Visual Entities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11824/) (2024)
- [Beyond Words and Pixels: A Benchmark for Implicit World Knowledge Reasoning in Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18271/) (2025)
- [Towards Unified Multimodal Interleaved Generation via Group Relative Policy Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.09538/) (2026)
- [Align Beyond Prompts: Evaluating World Knowledge Alignment in Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18730/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [GenRouter: Unified Workflow Routing for Agentic Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.16721/) (2026)
- [Agentic Visual Generation: From Generative Models to Agentic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.06758/) (2026)
- [AutoRef: Harness Optimization for Agentic Multi-Reference Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.35530/) (2026)
- [RSIgen: Reciprocal Self-Improvement for Agentic Visual Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.18688/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Text-to-image (T2I) models can produce visually compelling images, yet they remain limited on open-world tasks that require complex semantic understanding, multi-step reasoning, and the integration of external world knowledge. Existing efforts introduce agent capabilities into image generation, but they either prescribe a fixed workflow or place only a subset of the open-world image generation process under agent control. Consequently, reasoning, tool invocation, and image generation are not coordinated by a single policy. We propose ToolArtist, a fully agentic image generation model obtained by post-training a Unified Multimodal Model (UMM). ToolArtist dynamically orchestrates reasoning, external tool use, and native image generation within one unified policy. During Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), we equip a teacher agent with search tools alongside an image-generation tool. We then convert the collected trajectories into a UMM compatible format, where the image-generation tool is concealed while the resulting generated images are retained. During Reinforcement Learning (RL), we develop an agentic RL infrastructure for UMMs and introduce Reason-Act-Draw GRPO (RAD-GRPO), which uses complementary intent and quality rewards to jointly optimize the model. Experiments show that placing the entire open-world image-generation process under an agent policy consistently outperforms approaches with fixed pipelines or only partially agent-controlled components. We release the training data and the complete post-training infrastructure.