EvoFlow: Evolving Diverse Agentic Workflows On The Fly

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Zhang, Guibin, Chen, Kaijie, Wan, Guancheng, Chang, Heng, Cheng, Hong, Wang, Kun, Hu, Shuyue, Bai, Lei
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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_version_ 1866909488057942016
author Zhang, Guibin
Chen, Kaijie
Wan, Guancheng
Chang, Heng
Cheng, Hong
Wang, Kun
Hu, Shuyue
Bai, Lei
author_facet Zhang, Guibin
Chen, Kaijie
Wan, Guancheng
Chang, Heng
Cheng, Hong
Wang, Kun
Hu, Shuyue
Bai, Lei
contents The past two years have witnessed the evolution of large language model (LLM)-based multi-agent systems from labor-intensive manual design to partial automation (\textit{e.g.}, prompt engineering, communication topology) and eventually to fully automated design. However, existing agentic automation pipelines often lack LLM heterogeneity and focus on single-objective performance optimization, limiting their potential to combine weaker models for more customized and cost-effective solutions. To address this challenge, we propose EvoFlow, a niching evolutionary algorithm-based framework to automatically search a population of heterogeneous and complexity-adaptive agentic workflows, rather than a single homogeneous, complex workflow. Technically, EvoFlow performs \textit{(1) tag-based retrieval} to extract parent workflows from an agentic population, evolves new workflows through \textit{(2) crossover} and \textit{(3) mutation}, and employs \textit{(4) niching-based selection} to maintain population diversity and quality. Extensive evaluations across seven benchmarks demonstrate that EvoFlow is: \textbf{(I) diverse}, evolving a population of workflows ranging from simple I/O tasks to complex multi-turn interactions; \textbf{(II) high-performing}, outperforming previous handcrafted and automated workflows by $1.23\%\sim29.86\%$; \textbf{(III) economical}, surpassing powerful \llmname{o1-preview} at $12.4\%$ of its inference cost using weaker open-source models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_07373
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EvoFlow: Evolving Diverse Agentic Workflows On The Fly
Zhang, Guibin
Chen, Kaijie
Wan, Guancheng
Chang, Heng
Cheng, Hong
Wang, Kun
Hu, Shuyue
Bai, Lei
Machine Learning
Computation and Language
Multiagent Systems
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
The past two years have witnessed the evolution of large language model (LLM)-based multi-agent systems from labor-intensive manual design to partial automation (\textit{e.g.}, prompt engineering, communication topology) and eventually to fully automated design. However, existing agentic automation pipelines often lack LLM heterogeneity and focus on single-objective performance optimization, limiting their potential to combine weaker models for more customized and cost-effective solutions. To address this challenge, we propose EvoFlow, a niching evolutionary algorithm-based framework to automatically search a population of heterogeneous and complexity-adaptive agentic workflows, rather than a single homogeneous, complex workflow. Technically, EvoFlow performs \textit{(1) tag-based retrieval} to extract parent workflows from an agentic population, evolves new workflows through \textit{(2) crossover} and \textit{(3) mutation}, and employs \textit{(4) niching-based selection} to maintain population diversity and quality. Extensive evaluations across seven benchmarks demonstrate that EvoFlow is: \textbf{(I) diverse}, evolving a population of workflows ranging from simple I/O tasks to complex multi-turn interactions; \textbf{(II) high-performing}, outperforming previous handcrafted and automated workflows by $1.23\%\sim29.86\%$; \textbf{(III) economical}, surpassing powerful \llmname{o1-preview} at $12.4\%$ of its inference cost using weaker open-source models.
title EvoFlow: Evolving Diverse Agentic Workflows On The Fly
topic Machine Learning
Computation and Language
Multiagent Systems
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.07373