AgentPatch: Coarse-to-Fine Weak-Task Repair for Merging Agentic Multimodal Large Language Models
On the map: LLM reasoning → Reasoning for agents, planning and code
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Abstract (arXiv)
Agentic multimodal large language models (MLLMs) extend multimodal perception and reasoning with planning, tool use, and interaction in dynamic environments. Yet current models are specialized for particular tools or environments, complicating consolidation into a single generalist. We formulate Agentic MLLM Merging and identify two challenges: asymmetric capability preservation, whereby capabilities with different interaction complexity are retained unevenly, producing weak tasks after merging, and behavior-critical forgetting, whereby losing decisive actions can derail long-horizon execution. We propose AgentPatch, a training-free coarse-to-fine repair framework. It selects a stable merged backbone, restores diluted weak-task-specific signals through Weak-Task Unique Residual Recovery, and applies an Agent-Guided Behavior-Critical Patch that recovers decisive behaviors under explicit capability protection. AgentPatch produces a single static checkpoint without routing or ensembles. Experiments across six agentic and multimodal benchmarks show that AgentPatch improves diverse merged backbones, alleviates weak-task degradation, and better balances weak-task recovery with the preservation of complementary search and agentic visual processing capabilities. Code is available at https://github.com/ziboshao/AgentPatch.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Reasoning for agents, planning and code, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 24 of its 35 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Aug 2026.
Builds on
24 of 35 references.
References · 24
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12 more
- 2025MMSearch-R1: Incentivizing LMMs to Searchcited by 124
- 2024Model merging with SVD to tie the Knotscited by 122
- 2025WebWatcher: Breaking New Frontier of Vision-Language Deep Research Agentcited by 119
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- 2024Model Stock: All we need is just a few fine-tuned modelscited by 92
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- 2026PivotMerge: Bridging Heterogeneous Multimodal Pre-training via Post-Alignment Model Mergingcited by 2
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- 2026MUSE: A Unified Agentic Harness for MLLMs
- 2025A Survey on Agentic Multimodal Large Language Models
- 2026Agentic-MME: What Agentic Capability Really Brings to Multimodal Intelligence?
- 2026WorldMemArena: Evaluating Multimodal Agent Memory Through Action-World Interaction
- 2026Beyond the Current Observation: Evaluating Multimodal Large Language Models in Controllable Non-Markov Games
- 2025BiTAgent: A Task-Aware Modular Framework for Bidirectional Coupling between Multimodal Large Language Models and World Models
- 2026Beyond Memory: Harnessing Long-Horizon Agents with Explicit Belief States
- 2023Plan, Eliminate, and Track -- Language Models are Good Teachers for Embodied Agents