# V-Gym: Enhancing Agentic Visual Reasoning via Skill-Data Co-Evolution

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.34682 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.34682/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Spatial and embodied reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning.
- Builds on 51 of its 53 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Spatial and embodied reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/spatial-and-embodied-reasoning/)
- LLM agents and tool use / [Multimodal and embodied agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/multimodal-and-embodied-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 51)

- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16291/) (2023)
- [ExpeL: LLM Agents Are Experiential Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10144/) (2023)
- [ViperGPT: Visual Inference via Python Execution for Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08128/) (2023)
- [GEPA: Reflective Prompt Evolution Can Outperform Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19457/) (2025)
- [Agentic Context Engineering: Evolving Contexts for Self-Improving Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.04618/) (2025)
- [Agent Workflow Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.07429/) (2024)
- [Absolute Zero: Reinforced Self-play Reasoning with Zero Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.03335/) (2025)
- [ReasoningBank: Scaling Agent Self-Evolving with Reasoning Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25140/) (2025)
- [SkillRL: Evolving Agents via Recursive Skill-Augmented Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.08234/) (2026)
- [Visual Sketchpad: Sketching as a Visual Chain of Thought for Multimodal Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09403/) (2024)
- [R-Zero: Self-Evolving Reasoning LLM from Zero Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.05004/) (2025)
- [ToolACE: Winning the Points of LLM Function Calling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00920/) (2024)
- [SkillWeaver: Web Agents can Self-Improve by Discovering and Honing Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07079/) (2025)
- [Trace2Skill: Distill Trajectory-Local Lessons into Transferable Agent Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.25158/) (2026)
- [A Survey of Self-Evolving Agents: What, When, How, and Where to Evolve on the Path to Artificial Super Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21046/) (2025)
- [APIGen-MT: Agentic Pipeline for Multi-Turn Data Generation via Simulated Agent-Human Interplay](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03601/) (2025)
- [SkillOpt: Executive Strategy for Self-Evolving Agent Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23904/) (2026)
- [MemRL: Self-Evolving Agents via Runtime Reinforcement Learning on Episodic Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.03192/) (2026)
- [CoEvoSkills: Self-Evolving Agent Skills via Co-Evolutionary Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.01687/) (2026)
- [Memp: Exploring Agent Procedural Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06433/) (2025)
- [SKILL0: In-Context Agentic Reinforcement Learning for Skill Internalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.02268/) (2026)
- [AgentEvolver: Towards Efficient Self-Evolving Agent System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.10395/) (2025)
- [AgentGen: Enhancing Planning Abilities for Large Language Model based Agent via Environment and Task Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00764/) (2024)
- [Agent0: Unleashing Self-Evolving Agents from Zero Data via Tool-Integrated Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.16043/) (2025)
- [XSkill: Continual Learning from Experience and Skills in Multimodal Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.12056/) (2026)
- [Remember Me, Refine Me: A Dynamic Procedural Memory Framework for Experience-Driven Agent Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.10696/) (2025)
- [MMEvol: Empowering Multimodal Large Language Models with Evol-Instruct](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.05840/) (2024)
- [MM-BrowseComp: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Multimodal Browsing Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13186/) (2025)
- [MMSearch-Plus: Benchmarking Provenance-Aware Search for Multimodal Browsing Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.21475/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Advances in multimodal understanding, reasoning, and tool use enable agents to tackle increasingly complex visual reasoning tasks. By distilling past execution experience into reusable skills, agents can transfer lessons from both successes and failures into future reasoning, reducing repeated errors and improving capabilities. However, limited experience may produce unreliable, poorly generalizable skills, while static datasets may lack the targeted and diverse practice needed for refinement. To address this gap, we introduce V-Gym, an autonomous framework that iteratively co-evolves procedural skills and multimodal practice data from execution trajectories. During skill evolution, V-Gym analyzes trajectories to distill and refine hierarchical skills, updating procedural guidance and applicability conditions while retaining an update only if it improves validation performance. During data evolution, V-Gym selects generation seeds by balancing data utility and exploration, then translates trajectory-identified bottlenecks into diverse, targeted practice data that expand the data bank after quality checks. The resulting practice outcomes feed back into subsequent skill updates, closing the loop for continual skill refinement. Experiments across diverse multimodal reasoning benchmarks show substantial improvements over baselines with multiple backbone models. Its evolved skills generalize across domains and models, while evolved data support more effective skill refinement, enabling autonomous diagnosis, targeted practice, and continual self-improvement.