# VLM-in-Sandbox: Visual Workspaces for Agentic Visual Reasoning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24362 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24362/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Multimodal reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 45 of its 46 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Multimodal reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/multimodal-reasoning/)
- Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models / [Embodied and 3D vision-language models](https://mlsanity.com/mllm/embodied-and-3d-vision-language-models/)
- LLM agents and tool use / [Multimodal and embodied agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/multimodal-and-embodied-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 45)

- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [MMMU: A Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding and Reasoning Benchmark for Expert AGI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16502/) (2023)
- [WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.13854/) (2023)
- [MathVista: Evaluating Mathematical Reasoning of Foundation Models in Visual Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02255/) (2023)
- [OSWorld: Benchmarking Multimodal Agents for Open-Ended Tasks in Real Computer Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07972/) (2024)
- [Are We on the Right Way for Evaluating Large Vision-Language Models?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.20330/) (2024)
- [Vision-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06749/) (2025)
- [ViperGPT: Visual Inference via Python Execution for Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08128/) (2023)
- [MathVerse: Does Your Multi-modal LLM Truly See the Diagrams in Visual Math Problems?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14624/) (2024)
- [Measuring Multimodal Mathematical Reasoning with MATH-Vision Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14804/) (2024)
- [MM-REACT: Prompting ChatGPT for Multimodal Reasoning and Action](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11381/) (2023)
- [Visual Programming: Compositional visual reasoning without training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.11559/) (2022)
- [Visual-RFT: Visual Reinforcement Fine-Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01785/) (2025)
- [V*: Guided Visual Search as a Core Mechanism in Multimodal LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14135/) (2023)
- [DeepEyes: Incentivizing "Thinking with Images" via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.14362/) (2025)
- [Chameleon: Plug-and-Play Compositional Reasoning with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09842/) (2023)
- [MME-RealWorld: Could Your Multimodal LLM Challenge High-Resolution Real-World Scenarios that are Difficult for Humans?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.13257/) (2024)
- [We-Math: Does Your Large Multimodal Model Achieve Human-like Mathematical Reasoning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01284/) (2024)
- [Visual Sketchpad: Sketching as a Visual Chain of Thought for Multimodal Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09403/) (2024)
- [LogicVista: Multimodal LLM Logical Reasoning Benchmark in Visual Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.04973/) (2024)
- [MLLMs Know Where to Look: Training-free Perception of Small Visual Details with Multimodal LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.17422/) (2025)
- [Thyme: Think Beyond Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.11630/) (2025)
- [OpenThinkIMG: Learning to Think with Images via Visual Tool Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.08617/) (2025)
- [Divide, Conquer and Combine: A Training-Free Framework for High-Resolution Image Perception in Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15556/) (2024)
- [LlamaV-o1: Rethinking Step-by-step Visual Reasoning in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06186/) (2025)
- [DynaMath: A Dynamic Visual Benchmark for Evaluating Mathematical Reasoning Robustness of Vision Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.00836/) (2024)
- [VisuLogic: A Benchmark for Evaluating Visual Reasoning in Multi-modal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.15279/) (2025)
- [Reason-RFT: Reinforcement Fine-Tuning for Visual Reasoning of Vision Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.20752/) (2025)
- [VTool-R1: VLMs Learn to Think with Images via Reinforcement Learning on Multimodal Tool Use](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19255/) (2025)
- [ReFocus: Visual Editing as a Chain of Thought for Structured Image Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.05452/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Sandboxed computer environments support multi-step reasoning with tools, executable programs, and persistent files, yet their extension from language models to vision-language models (VLMs) introduces a distinct state-management problem. Visual reasoning produces intermediate image-valued evidence---crops, masks, overlays, zoomed regions, and analytic renderings---that must remain addressable without accumulating unboundedly in multimodal context. We introduce VLM-in-Sandbox, a training-free framework for agentic multimodal reasoning in controlled computer environments. Its Visual Workspace registers generated artifacts in an image ledger, maintains a bounded active visual context, and lets the model explicitly promote selected evidence for subsequent inspection. This separates visual evidence generation, performed by sandbox tools, from visual evidence management. Across seven benchmarks and four base VLMs, VLM-in-Sandbox achieves the highest sample-weighted average accuracy among Vanilla VLM, Append-only Sandbox, and the proposed method. A compiler-matched 2×2 study on 1,260 examples further separates model-directed visibility from bounded retention: VLM-in-Sandbox reaches 66.27% accuracy with 18.6% fewer total tokens than the automatic, retain-all control. Over all 6,350 submitted GPT-4.1-mini examples, it produces 302 rescues and 142 regressions relative to Original Append-only. A local vLLM study with prefix caching confirms that the smaller request workload also reduces uncached tokens, time to first token, and end-to-end latency. These results identify explicit visual evidence state as a central abstraction for sandboxed VLM agents.