# Principles that Guide, Actions that Inform: Agent Evolution via Knowledge Abstraction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06964 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.06964/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (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 28 of its 30 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Oct 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/agents/general-llm-agent-frameworks-and-benchmarks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.03300/) (2024)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17651/) (2023)
- [Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01691/) (2022)
- [Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16291/) (2023)
- [MemGPT: Towards LLMs as Operating Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08560/) (2023)
- [ALFWorld: Aligning Text and Embodied Environments for Interactive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.03768/) (2020)
- [A-MEM: Agentic Memory for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12110/) (2025)
- [ExpeL: LLM Agents Are Experiential Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10144/) (2023)
- [Mem0: Building Production-Ready AI Agents with Scalable Long-Term Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19413/) (2025)
- [MemoryBank: Enhancing Large Language Models with Long-Term Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10250/) (2023)
- [Zep: A Temporal Knowledge Graph Architecture for Agent Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13956/) (2025)
- [Agentic Context Engineering: Evolving Contexts for Self-Improving Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.04618/) (2025)
- [ScienceWorld: Is your Agent Smarter than a 5th Grader?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.07540/) (2022)
- [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)
- [MemRL: Self-Evolving Agents via Runtime Reinforcement Learning on Episodic Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.03192/) (2026)
- [Memento: Fine-tuning LLM Agents without Fine-tuning LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.16153/) (2025)
- [AutoGuide: Automated Generation and Selection of Context-Aware Guidelines for Large Language Model Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.08978/) (2024)
- [Remember Me, Refine Me: A Dynamic Procedural Memory Framework for Experience-Driven Agent Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.10696/) (2025)
- [Towards Lifelong Learning of Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06391/) (2024)
- [AutoManual: Constructing Instruction Manuals by LLM Agents via Interactive Environmental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.16247/) (2024)
- [Experience Compression Spectrum: Unifying Memory, Skills, and Rules in LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.15877/) (2026)
- [Evolving-RL: End-to-End Optimization of Experience-Driven Self-Evolving Capability within Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.10663/) (2026)
- [StraTA: Incentivizing Agentic Reinforcement Learning with Strategic Trajectory Abstraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.06642/) (2026)
- [CoEvo-Mem: Co-Evolving Retrieval Policy and Memory Bank for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.01739/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language model (LLM) agents have demonstrated strong capabilities in interactive environments, yet their ability to continually evolve from experience remains limited. Although fine-tuning enables adaptation, its dependence on parameter access and high computational costs restrict its flexibility, especially for large-scale and closed-source LLMs. External memory offers an alternative by allowing agents to accumulate experience without modifying model parameters. However, existing methods mainly focus on experience representation and organization, while the acquired knowledge remains tightly coupled with specific tasks and contexts, limiting generalization. A key challenge is how to transform concrete interactions into abstract and reusable knowledge that guides future decisions beyond individual experiences. To address this challenge, we propose SAGA (underlineSelf-evolving underlineAgents through Experience-underlineGrounded underlineAbstraction), a framework for experience-grounded knowledge abstraction and utilization in LLM agents. SAGA progressively transforms interaction trajectories into episodic descriptions, reusable procedures, and principles with explicit applicability conditions, while maintaining links to execution evidence. Retrieved principles are instantiated into task-specific guidance and used to refine candidate actions through corrective feedback and resampling. This creates an execution--abstraction feedback loop, where accumulated knowledge guides future interactions and new experiences continuously update hierarchical memory. Experiments on ScienceWorld and ALFWorld demonstrate improved task performance, with ablation studies highlighting the importance of contextual instantiation and action regulation for leveraging principle-level knowledge.