NeoHorse-1: Towards Recursive Self-Improvement via Agentic Post-Training with Routing Harness
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks
Abstract (arXiv)
Recursive self-improvement (RSI) requires a concrete mechanism through which an AI system observes its capabilities and converts that evidence into the next round of learning. We present NeoHorse-1, a family of agent-native models developed to explore this path through agentic post-training. Our system combines a heterogeneous model pool with intelligent routing, recording the predicted capability demand, selected service tier, and subsequent interaction for each user turn. These records are converted into training examples that preserve interleaved reasoning, tool calls, and harness context, and are admitted through structural validation, six-dimensional semantic evaluation, and subscene-level labeling. Routing signals organize supervised fine-tuning into a three-stage curriculum and extend to routing-guided on-policy distillation, where a teacher supervises student-generated responses under the same progression. Capability-guided allocation then converts evaluation feedback into the next training mixture, closing an evaluation-selection-update loop in which what the system learns to do shapes what it learns from next. Across eleven benchmarks covering harness-based agents, tool use, coding, and instruction following, post-training raises the macro-average from 58.94 to 64.87 at 4B and from 65.60 to 69.04 at 9B, substantially narrowing the aggregate gap between the post-trained 4B model and the 9B base model. We further adapt NeoHorse-1-4B into NeoHorse-Jev-4B, a prefill-only model that returns structured decisions and probabilities for agent workflows. NeoHorse-1 provides an initial prototype of this feedback-driven process and a path toward harness-mediated RSI across successive iterations.
Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 42 of its 69 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 8 Sep 2026.
Builds on
42 of 69 references.
Closest ancestors · 10
Same direction, newest first
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- 2023FireAct: Toward Language Agent Fine-tuning9 Oct
Other references · 32
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- 2026Qwen3-Coder-Next Technical Reportcited by 71
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- 2026Continual Harness: Online Adaptation for Self-Improving Foundation Agentscited by 41
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- 2023Instruction Tuning with Human Curriculumcited by 15
- 2026The Interplay of Harness Design and Post-Training in LLM Agentscited by 10
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.
4 papers.
- 2026RRSI: Regularized Recursive Self-Improvement of Agent Harnessescited by 13
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- 2026ECG-RSI: Recursive Self-Improvement through Targeted Electrocardiogram Waveform Evolutioncited by 0
- 2026DecisionRobust: Benchmarking Robustness for JEV Style Decision Models Across Text and Visioncited by 0
- 2026DecisionRobust: Benchmarking Robustness for JEV Style Decision Models Across Text and Vision13 Oct 2026
- 2026ECG-RSI: Recursive Self-Improvement through Targeted Electrocardiogram Waveform Evolution13 Oct 2026
- 2026From Existing Methods to New Research Ideas: Two Perspectives on Recursive Self-Improvement10 Oct 2026
- 2026RRSI: Regularized Recursive Self-Improvement of Agent Harnesses21 Sep 2026
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