# Self-Evolving Code-with-Image Reasoning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11292 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.11292/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Self-improving MLLMs and synthetic data, one of 13 directions in Synthetic data and self-improvement for LLMs.
- Builds on 41 of its 43 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Aug 2026.

## Placed in

- Synthetic data and self-improvement for LLMs / [Self-improving MLLMs and synthetic data](https://mlsanity.com/synth/self-improving-mllms-and-synthetic-data/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 41)

- [Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.0312/) (2014)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16291/) (2023)
- [MMMU: A Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding and Reasoning Benchmark for Expert AGI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16502/) (2023)
- [MathVista: Evaluating Mathematical Reasoning of Foundation Models in Visual Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02255/) (2023)
- [Program of Thoughts Prompting: Disentangling Computation from Reasoning for Numerical Reasoning Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.12588/) (2022)
- [Teaching Large Language Models to Self-Debug](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05128/) (2023)
- [Are We on the Right Way for Evaluating Large Vision-Language Models?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.20330/) (2024)
- [ExpeL: LLM Agents Are Experiential Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10144/) (2023)
- [Stochastic First- and Zeroth-order Methods for Nonconvex Stochastic Programming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1309.5549/) (2013)
- [PAL: Program-aided Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10435/) (2022)
- [ViperGPT: Visual Inference via Python Execution for Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08128/) (2023)
- [MathVerse: Does Your Multi-modal LLM Truly See the Diagrams in Visual Math Problems?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14624/) (2024)
- [GEPA: Reflective Prompt Evolution Can Outperform Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19457/) (2025)
- [Visual Programming: Compositional visual reasoning without training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.11559/) (2022)
- [V*: Guided Visual Search as a Core Mechanism in Multimodal LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14135/) (2023)
- [DeepEyes: Incentivizing "Thinking with Images" via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.14362/) (2025)
- [Fine-Tuning Language Models with Just Forward Passes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17333/) (2023)
- [Pixel Reasoner: Incentivizing Pixel-Space Reasoning with Curiosity-Driven Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.15966/) (2025)
- [Visual Sketchpad: Sketching as a Visual Chain of Thought for Multimodal Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09403/) (2024)
- [Thinking with Images for Multimodal Reasoning: Foundations, Methods, and Future Frontiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23918/) (2025)
- [Thyme: Think Beyond Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.11630/) (2025)
- [Divide, Conquer and Combine: A Training-Free Framework for High-Resolution Image Perception in Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15556/) (2024)
- [SkillOpt: Executive Strategy for Self-Evolving Agent Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23904/) (2026)
- [DeepEyesV2: Toward Agentic Multimodal Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.05271/) (2025)
- [EvoSkill: Automated Skill Discovery for Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02766/) (2026)
- [PyVision: Agentic Vision with Dynamic Tooling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07998/) (2025)
- [XSkill: Continual Learning from Experience and Skills in Multimodal Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.12056/) (2026)
- [TIR-Bench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Agentic Thinking-with-Images Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.01833/) (2025)
- [Beyond Seeing: Evaluating Multimodal LLMs on Tool-Enabled Image Perception, Transformation, and Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.12712/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [AnyJev Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.00831/) (2026)
- [VisualCoding: Learning Executable Skills for Reliable Visual Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.14403/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Multimodal models increasingly reach for tools when solving visual tasks (crop, zoom, rotate, brighten), a paradigm known as thinking-with-images. The central challenge is one of perception: tools mostly serve to expose visual evidence, reasoning over that evidence stays in language, and most targets are ones a human could in principle determine by inspection. Some visual questions, however, are not bottlenecked by perception: recovering their answers requires executing a multi-step visual algorithm over the pixels. On such questions a model often names the correct algorithm at once yet still answers wrong, because language can describe an algorithm without being able to run one. Code-with-Image crosses that line: given nothing but a Python interpreter, the model must implement a genuine visual algorithm in code to solve the task; the program itself becomes the reasoning. The bottleneck then shifts from executing code to deciding which algorithm to implement. So we let the model teach itself: a training-free reflection loop studies its own failed programs, tests repairs against constructive ground truth, and keeps what survives as portable skills. On our Code-with-Image Bench (CwI-Bench), thirty task families induced by hidden visual computations with disjoint learning and evaluation splits, even GPT-5.6-luna stays below 30% with tool-free chain of thought; given a bare interpreter it reaches 43%, and with skills evolved through its own executable reflection, 67%. The open 27B model climbs the same ladder (9% rightarrow 33% rightarrow 56%), and the skills are plain text, transferable across scales and families. When code carries the reasoning, debugging code becomes debugging reasoning.