mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

DART-SD: Diamond-topology Aware Retrieval and Tuning for Self-Distillation of Multi-Turn Tool-Calling Agents

arXiv 2608.18524 ↗First posted 19 Aug 2026cs.CL cs.AI cs.LGcited by 2

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Tool learning and function calling

Abstract (arXiv)

Equipping Large Language Models (LLMs) with multi-turn tool-calling capabilities is essential for building autonomous agents. However, progress is fundamentally limited by the reliance on full-length trajectory imitation. For tasks involving multiple order-independent sub-goals, the optimal solution space forms a vast combinatorial diamond lattice. Forcing this rich topology into monolithic trajectories causes a severe topological collapse, indiscriminately penalizing valid alternative explorations and severely degrading policy diversity. To address this, we propose DART-SD (Diamond-topology Aware Retrieval and Tuning for Self-Distillation), a novel framework that shifts the paradigm from global forcing to topology-guided localized correction. DART-SD first models the execution process as a converging Interaction-State Transition Graph (ISTG), faithfully capturing the inherent diamond topology of successful and failed exploratory paths. During autonomous rollouts, the framework identifies the Critical Topological Breakpoint (CTB) and retrieves success-supported recovery references. Finally, we introduce a progressive self-distillation paradigm through CTB-guided localized supervision, ensuring that the training loss is calculated exclusively on the generated recovery steps while strictly protecting the valid reasoning prefix from destructive gradient updates. Experiments on complex multi-turn tool-calling benchmarks demonstrate that DART-SD significantly outperforms traditional full-trajectory baselines.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Tool learning and function calling, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 39 of its 43 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Aug 2026.

Builds on

39 of 43 references.

Closest ancestors · 5

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025ToolHop: A Query-Driven Benchmark for Evaluating Large Language Models in Multi-Hop Tool Use5 Jan
  2. 2024TL-Training: A Task-Feature-Based Framework for Training Large Language Models in Tool Use20 Dec
  3. 2024RoTBench: A Multi-Level Benchmark for Evaluating the Robustness of Large Language Models in Tool Learning16 Jan
  4. 2023ToolLLM: Facilitating Large Language Models to Master 16000+ Real-world APIs31 Jul
  5. 2023Tool Learning with Foundation Models17 Apr

Other references · 34

  1. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
  2. 2020Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understandingcited by 7,768
  3. 2025Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilitiescited by 3,655
  4. 2023Let's Verify Step by Stepcited by 3,598
  5. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,422
  6. 2024τ-bench: A Benchmark for Tool-Agent-User Interaction in Real-World Domainscited by 1,280
  7. 2023Instruction-Following Evaluation for Large Language Modelscited by 1,143
  8. 2015Sequence Level Training with Recurrent Neural Networkscited by 568
  9. 2026GLM-5: from Vibe Coding to Agentic Engineeringcited by 502
  10. 2026Self-Distilled Reasoner: On-Policy Self-Distillation for Large Language Modelscited by 386
  11. 2025ToolRL: Reward is All Tool Learning Needscited by 342
  12. 2025Distilling LLM Agent into Small Models with Retrieval and Code Toolscited by 41
22 more
  1. 2026Beyond Trajectory-Level Attribution: Graph-Based Credit Assignment for Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 23
  2. 2026Sparse but Critical: A Token-Level Analysis of Distributional Shifts in RLVR Fine-Tuning of LLMscited by 20
  3. 2025Feedback-Driven Tool-Use Improvements in Large Language Models via Automated Build Environmentscited by 19
  4. 2026Thinking to Recall: How Reasoning Unlocks Parametric Knowledge in LLMscited by 13
  5. 2026Multi-Turn On-Policy Distillation with Prefix Replaycited by 12
  6. 2024How Reliable are LLMs as Knowledge Bases? Re-thinking Facutality and Consistencycited by 10
  7. 2026World of Workflows: A Benchmark for Bringing World Models to Enterprise Systemscited by 10
  8. 2026MatchTIR: Fine-Grained Supervision for Tool-Integrated Reasoning via Bipartite Matchingcited by 9
  9. 2026HINT-SD: Targeted Hindsight Self-Distillation for Long-Horizon Agentscited by 7
  10. 2026Group-Graph Policy Optimization for Long-Horizon Agentic Reinforcement Learningcited by 7
  11. 2025Building Coding Agents via Entropy-Enhanced Multi-Turn Preference Optimizationcited by 5
  12. 2025PARL-MT: Learning to Call Functions in Multi-Turn Conversation with Progress Awarenesscited by 4
  13. 2026R3G: A Reasoning-Retrieval-Reranking Framework for Vision-Centric Answer Generationcited by 4
  14. 2026When Models Judge Themselves: Unsupervised Self-Evolution for Multimodal Reasoningcited by 4
  15. 2026The Context Gathering Decision Process: A POMDP Framework for Agentic Searchcited by 4
  16. 2026Hindsight Hint Distillation: Scaffolded Reasoning for SWE Agents from CoT-free Answerscited by 4
  17. 2026What Does Loss Optimization Actually Teach, If Anything? Knowledge Dynamics in Continual Pre-training of LLMscited by 3
  18. 2026Beyond Reasoning: Reinforcement Learning Unlocks Parametric Knowledge in LLMscited by 3
  19. 2026ProMSA:Progressive Multimodal Search Agents for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answeringcited by 3
  20. 2025Training Task Reasoning LLM Agents for Multi-turn Task Planning via Single-turn Reinforcement Learningcited by 2
  21. 2026Learning to Search: A Decision-Based Agent for Knowledge-Based Visual Question Answeringcited by 2
  22. 2026Chain-based Adaptive Reconfiguration Over Lattices for Hallucination Reductioncited by 1

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2023ToolChain*: Efficient Action Space Navigation in Large Language Models with A* Search
  2. 2026JADE: Bridging the Strategic-Operational Gap in Dynamic Agentic RAG
  3. 2025Dynamic System Instructions and Tool Exposure for Efficient Agentic LLMs
  4. 2026Beyond Single-Shot: Multi-step Tool Retrieval via Query Planning
  5. 2025MemTool: Optimizing Short-Term Memory Management for Dynamic Tool Calling in LLM Agent Multi-Turn Conversations
  6. 2026SING: Synthetic Intention Graph for Scalable Active Tool Discovery in LLM Agents
  7. 2026Self-Evolution for Multi-Turn Tool-Calling Agents via Divergence-Point Preference Learning
  8. 2026ToolAtlas: Learning Once, Reusing Everywhere with Tool-Side Memory