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Main Authors: Yang, Zerui, Wang, Weichuan, Xu, Yanwei, Song, Linqi, Matsuda, Yudai, Han, Wei, Bai, Bo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10011
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author Yang, Zerui
Wang, Weichuan
Xu, Yanwei
Song, Linqi
Matsuda, Yudai
Han, Wei
Bai, Bo
author_facet Yang, Zerui
Wang, Weichuan
Xu, Yanwei
Song, Linqi
Matsuda, Yudai
Han, Wei
Bai, Bo
contents Existing NL2SQL systems face two critical limitations: (1) they rely on in-context learning with only correct examples, overlooking the rich signal in historical error-fix pairs that could guide more robust self-correction; and (2) test-time scaling approaches often decompose questions arbitrarily, producing near-identical SQL candidates across runs and diminishing ensemble gains. Moreover, these methods suffer from a stark accuracy-efficiency trade-off: high performance demands excessive computation, while fast variants compromise quality. We present Memo-SQL, a training-free framework that addresses these issues through two simple ideas: structured decomposition and experience-aware self-correction. Instead of leaving decomposition to chance, we apply three clear strategies, entity-wise, hierarchical, and atomic sequential, to encourage diverse reasoning. For correction, we build a dynamic memory of both successful queries and historical error-fix pairs, and use retrieval-augmented prompting to bring relevant examples into context at inference time, no fine-tuning or external APIs required. On BIRD, Memo-SQL achieves 68.5% execution accuracy, setting a new state of the art among open, zero-fine-tuning methods, while using over 10 times fewer resources than prior TTS approaches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_10011
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Memo-SQL: Structured Decomposition and Experience-Driven Self-Correction for Training-Free NL2SQL
Yang, Zerui
Wang, Weichuan
Xu, Yanwei
Song, Linqi
Matsuda, Yudai
Han, Wei
Bai, Bo
Artificial Intelligence
Existing NL2SQL systems face two critical limitations: (1) they rely on in-context learning with only correct examples, overlooking the rich signal in historical error-fix pairs that could guide more robust self-correction; and (2) test-time scaling approaches often decompose questions arbitrarily, producing near-identical SQL candidates across runs and diminishing ensemble gains. Moreover, these methods suffer from a stark accuracy-efficiency trade-off: high performance demands excessive computation, while fast variants compromise quality. We present Memo-SQL, a training-free framework that addresses these issues through two simple ideas: structured decomposition and experience-aware self-correction. Instead of leaving decomposition to chance, we apply three clear strategies, entity-wise, hierarchical, and atomic sequential, to encourage diverse reasoning. For correction, we build a dynamic memory of both successful queries and historical error-fix pairs, and use retrieval-augmented prompting to bring relevant examples into context at inference time, no fine-tuning or external APIs required. On BIRD, Memo-SQL achieves 68.5% execution accuracy, setting a new state of the art among open, zero-fine-tuning methods, while using over 10 times fewer resources than prior TTS approaches.
title Memo-SQL: Structured Decomposition and Experience-Driven Self-Correction for Training-Free NL2SQL
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10011