Illuminating LLM Coding Agents: Visual Analytics for Deeper Understanding and Enhancement

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Wang, Junpeng, Chen, Yuzhong, Pan, Menghai, Yeh, Chin-Chia Michael, Das, Mahashweta
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Wang, Junpeng
Chen, Yuzhong
Pan, Menghai
Yeh, Chin-Chia Michael
Das, Mahashweta
author_facet Wang, Junpeng
Chen, Yuzhong
Pan, Menghai
Yeh, Chin-Chia Michael
Das, Mahashweta
contents Coding agents powered by large language models (LLMs) have gained traction for automating code generation through iterative problem-solving with minimal human involvement. Despite the emergence of various frameworks, e.g., LangChain, AutoML, and AIDE, ML scientists still struggle to effectively review and adjust the agents' coding process. The current approach of manually inspecting individual outputs is inefficient, making it difficult to track code evolution, compare coding iterations, and identify improvement opportunities. To address this challenge, we introduce a visual analytics system designed to enhance the examination of coding agent behaviors. Focusing on the AIDE framework, our system supports comparative analysis across three levels: (1) Code-Level Analysis, which reveals how the agent debugs and refines its code over iterations; (2) Process-Level Analysis, which contrasts different solution-seeking processes explored by the agent; and (3) LLM-Level Analysis, which highlights variations in coding behavior across different LLMs. By integrating these perspectives, our system enables ML scientists to gain a structured understanding of agent behaviors, facilitating more effective debugging and prompt engineering. Through case studies using coding agents to tackle popular Kaggle competitions, we demonstrate how our system provides valuable insights into the iterative coding process.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_12555
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Illuminating LLM Coding Agents: Visual Analytics for Deeper Understanding and Enhancement
Wang, Junpeng
Chen, Yuzhong
Pan, Menghai
Yeh, Chin-Chia Michael
Das, Mahashweta
Machine Learning
Coding agents powered by large language models (LLMs) have gained traction for automating code generation through iterative problem-solving with minimal human involvement. Despite the emergence of various frameworks, e.g., LangChain, AutoML, and AIDE, ML scientists still struggle to effectively review and adjust the agents' coding process. The current approach of manually inspecting individual outputs is inefficient, making it difficult to track code evolution, compare coding iterations, and identify improvement opportunities. To address this challenge, we introduce a visual analytics system designed to enhance the examination of coding agent behaviors. Focusing on the AIDE framework, our system supports comparative analysis across three levels: (1) Code-Level Analysis, which reveals how the agent debugs and refines its code over iterations; (2) Process-Level Analysis, which contrasts different solution-seeking processes explored by the agent; and (3) LLM-Level Analysis, which highlights variations in coding behavior across different LLMs. By integrating these perspectives, our system enables ML scientists to gain a structured understanding of agent behaviors, facilitating more effective debugging and prompt engineering. Through case studies using coding agents to tackle popular Kaggle competitions, we demonstrate how our system provides valuable insights into the iterative coding process.
title Illuminating LLM Coding Agents: Visual Analytics for Deeper Understanding and Enhancement
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.12555