SemGuard: Real-Time Semantic Evaluator for Correcting LLM-Generated Code

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Main Authors: Wang, Qinglin, Sun, Zhihong, Wang, Ruyun, Huang, Tao, Jin, Zhi, Li, Ge, Lyu, Chen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Wang, Qinglin
Sun, Zhihong
Wang, Ruyun
Huang, Tao
Jin, Zhi
Li, Ge
Lyu, Chen
author_facet Wang, Qinglin
Sun, Zhihong
Wang, Ruyun
Huang, Tao
Jin, Zhi
Li, Ge
Lyu, Chen
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) can translate natural language requirements into code, yet empirical analyses of representative models reveal that semantic errors-programs that compile but behave incorrectly-constitute the majority of observed faults (e.g., >60% on DeepSeek-Coder-6.7B and QwenCoder-7B). Post-hoc repair pipelines detect such faults only after execution, incurring latency, relying on incomplete test suites, and often mis-localizing the defect. Since semantic drift originates in the autoregressive decoding process, intervening while the code is being generated is a direct way to stop error propagation. Constrained-decoding approaches such as ROCODE attempt this, but still wait until the entire program runs to obtain feedback and use entropy heuristics that do not truly capture semantics. A more effective solution must inject semantic signals-early and precisely-into the decoding process.We present SemGuard, a semantic-evaluator-driven framework that performs real-time, line-level semantic supervision. To train the evaluator, we build SemDiff, the first dataset with fine-grained annotations that mark the exact line where a correct and an incorrect implementation diverge. The evaluator, once embedded in the LLM's decoder, flags deviations on partial code, rolls back to the faulty line, and guides regeneration-without executing the program or requiring test cases. Across four benchmarks, SemGuard consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. It lowers the semantic error rate by 19.86% on SemDiff relative to ROCODE, and lifts Pass@1 by 48.92% on the real-world LiveCodeBench with CodeLlama-7B. Similar gains hold for StarCoder2-7B on MBPP and for DeepSeekCoder-6.7B on the Java benchmark SemDiff-Java, demonstrating model- and language-agnostic effectiveness.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_24507
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SemGuard: Real-Time Semantic Evaluator for Correcting LLM-Generated Code
Wang, Qinglin
Sun, Zhihong
Wang, Ruyun
Huang, Tao
Jin, Zhi
Li, Ge
Lyu, Chen
Software Engineering
Large Language Models (LLMs) can translate natural language requirements into code, yet empirical analyses of representative models reveal that semantic errors-programs that compile but behave incorrectly-constitute the majority of observed faults (e.g., >60% on DeepSeek-Coder-6.7B and QwenCoder-7B). Post-hoc repair pipelines detect such faults only after execution, incurring latency, relying on incomplete test suites, and often mis-localizing the defect. Since semantic drift originates in the autoregressive decoding process, intervening while the code is being generated is a direct way to stop error propagation. Constrained-decoding approaches such as ROCODE attempt this, but still wait until the entire program runs to obtain feedback and use entropy heuristics that do not truly capture semantics. A more effective solution must inject semantic signals-early and precisely-into the decoding process.We present SemGuard, a semantic-evaluator-driven framework that performs real-time, line-level semantic supervision. To train the evaluator, we build SemDiff, the first dataset with fine-grained annotations that mark the exact line where a correct and an incorrect implementation diverge. The evaluator, once embedded in the LLM's decoder, flags deviations on partial code, rolls back to the faulty line, and guides regeneration-without executing the program or requiring test cases. Across four benchmarks, SemGuard consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. It lowers the semantic error rate by 19.86% on SemDiff relative to ROCODE, and lifts Pass@1 by 48.92% on the real-world LiveCodeBench with CodeLlama-7B. Similar gains hold for StarCoder2-7B on MBPP and for DeepSeekCoder-6.7B on the Java benchmark SemDiff-Java, demonstrating model- and language-agnostic effectiveness.
title SemGuard: Real-Time Semantic Evaluator for Correcting LLM-Generated Code
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.24507