# PEAR: Progressive Evidence-Based AutoResearch for Industrial Search Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35031 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.35031/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 21 of its 27 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10601/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11432/) (2023)
- [The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06292/) (2024)
- [ChatDev: Communicative Agents for Software Development](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.07924/) (2023)
- [Hyperband: A Novel Bandit-Based Approach to Hyperparameter Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.06560/) (2016)
- [MLAgentBench: Evaluating Language Agents on Machine Learning Experimentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03302/) (2023)
- [Meta-Harness: End-to-End Optimization of Model Harnesses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.28052/) (2026)
- [Multi-fidelity Bayesian Optimisation with Continuous Approximations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06240/) (2017)
- [TourRank: Utilizing Large Language Models for Documents Ranking with a Tournament-Inspired Strategy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11678/) (2024)
- [AutoResearchClaw: Self-Reinforcing Autonomous Research with Human-AI Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.20025/) (2026)
- [Self-Evolving Recommendation System: End-To-End Autonomous Model Optimization With LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.10226/) (2026)
- [Toward Autonomous Long-Horizon Engineering for ML Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13018/) (2026)
- [Self-EvolveRec: Self-Evolving Recommender Systems with LLM-based Directional Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.12612/) (2026)
- [AutoResearch AI: Towards AI-Powered Research Automation for Scientific Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23204/) (2026)
- [AcuRank: Uncertainty-Aware Adaptive Computation for Listwise Reranking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18512/) (2025)
- [AgentX: Towards Agent-Driven Self-Iteration of Industrial Recommender Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.26859/) (2026)
- [Beyond Content Relevance: Evaluating Instruction Following in Retrieval Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23841/) (2024)
- [Let the Agent Steer: Closed-Loop Ranking Optimization via Influence Exchange](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27765/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

AutoResearch improves systems through iterative experimentation: agents propose candidate modifications, evaluate them, and use the results to guide subsequent exploration. Applying this paradigm to industrial search presents two challenges. (1) Common AutoResearch approaches follow a keep-if-better rule, retaining the highest-scoring candidate for subsequent experiments. Under non-stationary traffic, transient gains may be mistaken for persistent improvements, impairing reliable accumulation of search knowledge. (2) Candidate modifications can be evaluated at multiple fidelity levels, from low-cost proxies to online validation, differing in cost, objective alignment, and statistical reliability. Existing methods rely on individual signals or task-specific procedures, lacking a unified basis for using evidence across levels to guide search. We introduce Progressive Evidence-Based AutoResearch (PEAR) with two complementary components. Evidence-driven AutoResearch maintains an independent, hypothesis-guided research state for each strategy task within a predefined objective and intervention scope. Each state evolves through a Plan-Execute-Evaluate-Update transition that links experimentation to context-aware evidence interpretation and hypothesis revision. Confidence-Gated Verifier Ladder organizes evaluation into four levels of increasing fidelity: Offline Replay, Shadow-Traffic Evaluation, Rapid Online Evaluation, and Decision-Grade Online Evaluation. A unified confidence-based gate promotes candidates only when evidence supports a statistically significant positive effect, enabling broad low-cost exploration while reserving costly online experiments for promoted candidates. In a real-world industrial search system, strategies optimized with PEAR significantly increased Main Order/DAU by 2.7336% and 3.2957% relative to their respective baselines in two A/B experiments.