mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

MOSCOPT: Mixture-of-Skills Collective Optimization for LLM Agents

arXiv 2609.14399 ↗First posted 13 Sep 2026cs.AI cs.CLcited by 0

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

Abstract (arXiv)

Natural language prompts and skills serve as the strategic backbone of LLM-based agents. Recent advances in prompt and skill optimization have achieved notable gains, yet all existing methods optimize a single text template---missing the synergy among multiple complementary strategies. We propose MOSCOPT, a text-native, parameter-free algorithm that jointly optimizes a pool of N skills and a gating skill G that dynamically selects K skills per step. To effectively optimize the skills, we build the EditAdam with internally maintained dual states. Through the three-phase interleaved updates with EditAdam, the system monotonically improves without gradient or parameter tuning. Extensive experiments and detailed ablations across 5 benchmarks and 3 target LLMs demonstrate that MOSCOPT consistently outperforms all baselines, and confirm that both the mixture-of-skills architecture with selective activation and the collective evolution with three-phase interleaving are essential to its superior performance. Code is released https://github.com/zhangzhenyu13/SummerClaw/tree/master/summerclaw/agenttrainer/algorithms/moscopt.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent skill learning and evolution, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 18 of its 21 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 13 Sep 2026.

Builds on

18 of 21 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026SkillOpt: Executive Strategy for Self-Evolving Agent Skills22 May
  2. 2026Trace2Skill: Distill Trajectory-Local Lessons into Transferable Agent Skills26 Mar
  3. 2026EvoSkill: Automated Skill Discovery for Multi-Agent Systems3 Mar
  4. 2026SoK: Agentic Skills -- Beyond Tool Use in LLM Agents24 Feb

Other references · 14

  1. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,276
  2. 2023GPQA: A Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmarkcited by 2,879
  3. 2024M3-Embedding: Multi-Linguality, Multi-Functionality, Multi-Granularity Text Embeddings Through Self-Knowledge Distillationcited by 1,073
  4. 2025A-MEM: Agentic Memory for LLM Agentscited by 1,063
  5. 2023Large Language Models as Optimizerscited by 864
  6. 2023DSPy: Compiling Declarative Language Model Calls into Self-Improving Pipelinescited by 832
  7. 2023Promptbreeder: Self-Referential Self-Improvement Via Prompt Evolutioncited by 551
  8. 2023Cognitive Architectures for Language Agentscited by 429
  9. 2017SearchQA: A New Q&A Dataset Augmented with Context from a Search Enginecited by 225
  10. 2025Multi-Agent Collaboration via Evolving Orchestrationcited by 108
  11. 2025MasRouter: Learning to Route LLMs for Multi-Agent Systemscited by 88
  12. 2024Mixture of A Million Expertscited by 72
2 more
  1. 2025SE-Agent: Self-Evolution Trajectory Optimization in Multi-Step Reasoning with LLM-Based Agentscited by 69
  2. 2024Dipper: Diversity in Prompts for Producing Large Language Model Ensembles in Reasoning taskscited by 22

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  1. 2026MOCHA: Multi-Objective Chebyshev Annealing for Agent Skill Optimization
  2. 2026GraphSkillEvo: Evolutionary Optimization of Graph-Structured Agent Skills
  3. 2026SkillAdaptor: Self-Adapting Skills for LLM Agents from Trajectories
  4. 2026Skills-Coach: A Self-Evolving Skill Optimizer via Training-Free GRPO
  5. 2023AgentTuning: Enabling Generalized Agent Abilities for LLMs
  6. 2026MASkills: Continual Skills Optimization for Multi-Agent LLM Systems
  7. 2026Skills on the Fly: Test-Time Adaptive Skill Synthesis for LLM Agents
  8. 2026Optimal Skill Selection for LLM Agents with Provable Bicriteria Guarantees