mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Recursive Experiential-Working Memory Evolution for Long-Horizon Agent Harnesses

arXiv 2608.24876 ↗First posted 25 Aug 2026cs.AI cs.CLcited by 4

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent skill learning and evolution

Abstract (arXiv)

Recursive self-improvement (RSI) remains hard in long-horizon tasks, where growing histories obscure the task state and misalign skill invocation. We introduce Recuris, a recursive Experiential-Working Memory architecture for long-horizon agent harnesses, in which Working Memory tracks task progress and guides skill selection from Experiential Memory, grounding skill use in current needs rather than the full history. This coupling also turns execution into structured evidence that localizes failures to specific memory components. Across tasks, a fixed Meta-Agent turns that evidence into localized, validation-gated updates to Skill Memory that reshape execution and yield new evidence, forming a bounded recursive memory-evolution loop. Across four long-horizon benchmarks and ten models, Recuris improves task success in 35 of the 37 completed model-benchmark pairs, carrying frontier models to SOTA-level task success: on tau-bench it adds +17.8 points to GPT-5.6 Sol and +15.6 to Claude Opus 5, taking Opus 5 to 87.9%, and +16.6/+13.5 points on Qwen3.6-27B/35B on SkillFlow. The advantage widens as the interaction horizon grows, to +32.2 points on the longest tasks, and common long-horizon failures fall by up to 80%. These results position recursively evolving memory as a scalable foundation for RSI, enabling agents to continuously transform accumulated experience into increasingly effective long-horizon behavior. Code: https://github.com/Gen-Verse/Recuris

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent skill learning and evolution, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 41 of its 50 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 25 Aug 2026.

Builds on

41 of 50 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026MetaSkill-Evolve: Recursive Self-Improvement of LLM Agents via Two-Timescale Meta-Skill Evolution6 Jul
  2. 2026SkillComposer: Learning to Evolve Agent Skills for Specification and Generalization4 Jun
  3. 2026SkillsInjector: Dynamic Skill Context Construction for LLM Agents28 May
  4. 2026How Well Do Agentic Skills Work in the Wild: Benchmarking LLM Skill Usage in Realistic Settings6 Apr

Other references · 37

  1. 2025Qwen3 Technical Reportcited by 8,195
  2. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,064
  3. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,081
  4. 2025A-MEM: Agentic Memory for LLM Agentscited by 1,000
  5. 2023ExpeL: LLM Agents Are Experiential Learnerscited by 814
  6. 2023DSPy: Compiling Declarative Language Model Calls into Self-Improving Pipelinescited by 803
  7. 2025AlphaEvolve: A coding agent for scientific and algorithmic discoverycited by 763
  8. 2023Promptbreeder: Self-Referential Self-Improvement Via Prompt Evolutioncited by 521
  9. 2026Terminal-Bench: Benchmarking Agents on Hard, Realistic Tasks in Command Line Interfacescited by 515
  10. 2025GEPA: Reflective Prompt Evolution Can Outperform Reinforcement Learningcited by 449
  11. 2023Cognitive Architectures for Language Agentscited by 422
  12. 2024Automated Design of Agentic Systemscited by 360
25 more
  1. 2024Agent Workflow Memorycited by 342
  2. 2025Darwin Godel Machine: Open-Ended Evolution of Self-Improving Agentscited by 294
  3. 2025ReasoningBank: Scaling Agent Self-Evolving with Reasoning Memorycited by 253
  4. 2025Which Agent Causes Task Failures and When? On Automated Failure Attribution of LLM Multi-Agent Systemscited by 170
  5. 2025Dynamic Cheatsheet: Test-Time Learning with Adaptive Memorycited by 146
  6. 2024AgentSquare: Automatic LLM Agent Search in Modular Design Spacecited by 141
  7. 2023Self-Taught Optimizer (STOP): Recursively Self-Improving Code Generationcited by 128
  8. 2025Alita: Generalist Agent Enabling Scalable Agentic Reasoning with Minimal Predefinition and Maximal Self-Evolutioncited by 114
  9. 2024Buffer of Thoughts: Thought-Augmented Reasoning with Large Language Modelscited by 91
  10. 2025Self-Adapting Language Modelscited by 71
  11. 2024AutoGuide: Automated Generation and Selection of Context-Aware Guidelines for Large Language Model Agentscited by 69
  12. 2024StateFlow: Enhancing LLM Task-Solving through State-Driven Workflowscited by 65
  13. 2025ReasonFlux: Hierarchical LLM Reasoning via Scaling Thought Templatescited by 62
  14. 2025SagaLLM: Context Management, Validation, and Transaction Guarantees for Multi-Agent LLM Planningcited by 58
  15. 2025A Self-Improving Coding Agentcited by 58
  16. 2025Your Agent May Misevolve: Emergent Risks in Self-evolving LLM Agentscited by 52
  17. 2025ReflAct: World-Grounded Decision Making in LLM Agents via Goal-State Reflectioncited by 30
  18. 2025LADDER: Self-Improving LLMs Through Recursive Problem Decompositioncited by 24
  19. 2024StateAct: Enhancing LLM Base Agents via Self-prompting and State-trackingcited by 21
  20. 2026Governing Evolving Memory in LLM Agents: Risks, Mechanisms, and the Stability and Safety Governed Memory (SSGM) Frameworkcited by 16
  21. 2026EvolveMem:Self-Evolving Memory Architecture via AutoResearch for LLM Agentscited by 11
  22. 2025On the Failure of Latent State Persistence in Large Language Modelscited by 8
  23. 2026PACE: Anytime-Valid Acceptance Tests for Self-Evolving Agentscited by 8
  24. 2026StructAgent: Harness Long-horizon Digital Agents with Unified Causal Structurecited by 4
  25. 2026SAGE: A Novelty Gate for Efficient Memory Evolution in Agentic LLMscited by 3

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. 2026ModularRSI: Modular and Generalizable Recursive Harness Self-Improvement
  2. 2026On the Fragility of Self-Improving Agents: Variance, Task Order, and Underspecification
  3. 2026ContinualSkillBench: Can LLM Agents Truly Evolve Their Capabilities?
  4. 2026When Not to Imitate: Boundary-Aware Skill Memory for Reliable Tool-Use LLM Agents
  5. 2026HyperSkill: Self-Evolving LLM Agents via Hypergraph-Structured Skill Memory
  6. 2026CONTRAMEM: Learning Self-Evolving Procedural Memory from Contrasting Multi-Model Trajectories
  7. 2026LatentGym: A Testbed For Cross-Task Experiential Learning With Controllable Latent Structure
  8. 2026Rethinking Self-Evolving Agent Skills: Feedback Dynamics over Multiple Rounds