mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

LEDGER: Claim-to-Evidence Trace Graphs for Auditing LLM Agents

arXiv 2608.18398 ↗First posted 19 Aug 2026cs.HC cs.AIcited by 4

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent threats, guardrails and governance

Abstract (arXiv)

Large language model (LLM) agents can now carry out long-horizon technical workflows involving complex tool use, code execution, file edits, and generated artifacts. As agents do more work faster, the productivity bottleneck shifts from producing outputs to auditing whether those outputs are correct and trustworthy. Agent observability systems make fine-grained execution events visible, but visibility alone still leaves reviewers to reconstruct which actions, artifacts, and validation steps matter for a particular conclusion. We introduce LEDGER - Layered Evidence and Decision Graphs for Execution Review, a tracing and review system that builds layered trace graphs over observed agent sessions. LEDGER preserves Trace Records while grouping them into Evidence Nodes and Workflow Nodes, representing artifacts as evidence anchors, and adding typed semantic edges that connect claims to supporting actions, artifacts, and checks. Through data-analysis and coding examples, we show how the resulting traces expose workflow decisions, artifact lineage, repair steps, validation coverage, and claim-support paths for evidence-centered audit.

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 18 of its 24 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Aug 2026.

Builds on

18 of 24 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025AgentAuditor: Human-Level Safety and Security Evaluation for LLM Agents31 May

Other references · 17

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  2. 2023Language Models Don't Always Say What They Think: Unfaithful Explanations in Chain-of-Thought Promptingcited by 1,081
  3. 2025Reasoning Models Don't Always Say What They Thinkcited by 388
  4. 2024ScienceAgentBench: Toward Rigorous Assessment of Language Agents for Data-Driven Scientific Discoverycited by 208
  5. 2025Survey on Evaluation of LLM-based Agentscited by 190
  6. 2025From LLM Reasoning to Autonomous AI Agents: A Comprehensive Reviewcited by 146
  7. 2025Monitoring Monitorabilitycited by 47
  8. 2025PROV-AGENT: Unified Provenance for Tracking AI Agent Interactions in Agentic Workflowscited by 29
  9. 2024Agent AI with LangGraph: A Modular Framework for Enhancing Machine Translation Using Large Language Modelscited by 27
  10. 2025Process-Centric Analysis of Agentic Software Systemscited by 24
  11. 2026CodeTracer: Towards Traceable Agent Statescited by 11
  12. 2026TrajAudit: Automated Failure Diagnosis for Agentic Coding Systemscited by 11
5 more
  1. 2025DeepVIS: Bridging Natural Language and Data Visualization Through Step-wise Reasoningcited by 8
  2. 2025The (R)evolution of Scientific Workflows in the Agentic AI Era: Towards Autonomous Sciencecited by 7
  3. 2025Provenance Tracking in Large-Scale Machine Learning Systemscited by 5
  4. 2026Graph of Trace: Visualizing Execution Traces of Scientific Agentcited by 4
  5. 2026When the Chain Breaks: Interactive Diagnosis of LLM Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Errorscited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.

4 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026From Agent Traces to Trust: A Survey of Evidence Tracing and Execution Provenance in LLM Agents
  2. 2026TraceSIR: A Multi-Agent Framework for Structured Analysis and Reporting of Agentic Execution Traces
  3. 2026Agent Flight Recorder: Tamper-Evident Audit Trails with On-Chain Anchoring for Long-Horizon Tool-Using Agents
  4. 2026SkillTrace: Multi-Trace Provenance Auditing for LLM-Agent Skill Reuse
  5. 2026Towards Security-Auditable LLM Agents: A Unified Graph Representation
  6. 2026Correct Is Not Governed: Provenance Integrity in Agentic Workflows
  7. 2026MAP-Graph: Provenance-Aware Shared Memory for Multi-Agent Workflows
  8. 2026Agent Audit: A Security Analysis System for LLM Agent Applications