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HFEPX · Eval paper review

The Evolution of Tool Use in LLM Agents: From Single-Tool Call to Multi-Tool Orchestration

Haoyuan Xu, Chang Li, Xinyan Ma, Xianhao Ou +11 more

Published

Mar 24, 2026

Citations

0

Trust level

Low

Usefulness score

15/100 (Low)

Extraction confidence

45% (Low)

Derived from extracted protocol signals and abstract evidence.

Rater population

Not reported

Signals refreshed

Apr 2, 2026

Should you rely on this paper?

This paper is adjacent to HFEPX scope and is best used for background context, not as a primary protocol reference.

Use this as background context only. Do not make protocol decisions from this page alone.

Best use

Background context only

Use if you need

A secondary eval reference to pair with stronger protocol papers.

What to verify

Read the full paper before copying any benchmark, metric, or protocol choices.

Main weakness

The available metadata is too thin to trust this as a primary source.

Human feedback signal
Not explicit
Not explicit in abstract metadata
Evaluation signal
Detected
Eval setup described
Usefulness for eval research
15/100
Adjacent candidate

Treat as adjacent context, not a core eval-method reference.

Abstract

Tool use enables large language models (LLMs) to access external information, invoke software systems, and act in digital environments beyond what can be solved from model parameters alone. Early research mainly studied whether a model could select and execute a correct single tool call. As agent systems evolve, however, the central problem has shifted from isolated invocation to multi-tool orchestration over long trajectories with intermediate state, execution feedback, changing environments, and practical constraints such as safety, cost, and verifiability. We comprehensively review recent progress in multi-tool LLM agents and analyzes the state of the art in this rapidly developing area. First, we unify task formulations and distinguish single-call tool use from long-horizon orchestration. Then, we organize the literature around six core dimensions: inference-time planning and execution, training and trajectory construction, safety and control, efficiency under resource constraints, capability completeness in open environments, and benchmark design and evaluation. We further summarize representative applications in software engineering, enterprise workflows, graphical user interfaces, and mobile systems. Finally, we discuss major challenges and outline future directions for building reliable, scalable, and verifiable multi-tool agents.

What we could verify

These are the protocol signals we could actually recover from the available paper metadata. Use them to decide whether this paper is worth deeper reading.

Human Feedback Types

missing

None explicit

No explicit feedback protocol extracted.

"Tool use enables large language models (LLMs) to access external information, invoke software systems, and act in digital environments beyond what can be solved from model parameters alone."

Evaluation Modes

partial

Automatic Metrics

Includes extracted eval setup.

"Tool use enables large language models (LLMs) to access external information, invoke software systems, and act in digital environments beyond what can be solved from model parameters alone."

Quality Controls

missing

Not reported

No explicit QC controls found.

"Tool use enables large language models (LLMs) to access external information, invoke software systems, and act in digital environments beyond what can be solved from model parameters alone."

Benchmarks / Datasets

missing

Not extracted

No benchmark anchors detected.

"Tool use enables large language models (LLMs) to access external information, invoke software systems, and act in digital environments beyond what can be solved from model parameters alone."

Reported Metrics

missing

Not extracted

No metric anchors detected.

"Tool use enables large language models (LLMs) to access external information, invoke software systems, and act in digital environments beyond what can be solved from model parameters alone."

Benchmarks and datasets

No benchmark or dataset names were extracted from the available abstract.

Reported metrics

No metric terms were extracted from the available abstract.

Human feedback details
Uses human feedback
No
Feedback types
None
Rater population
Not reported
Unit of annotation
Trajectory (inferred)
Expertise required
Coding
Evaluation details
Evaluation modes
Automatic Metrics
Agentic eval
Tool Use, Long Horizon
Quality controls
Not reported
Evidence quality
Low
Use this page as
Background context only

Research brief

Metadata summary

Tool use enables large language models (LLMs) to access external information, invoke software systems, and act in digital environments beyond what can be solved from model parameters alone.

Based on abstract + metadata only. Check the source paper before making high-confidence protocol decisions.

Key takeaways

  • Tool use enables large language models (LLMs) to access external information, invoke software systems, and act in digital environments beyond what can be solved from model parameters alone.
  • Early research mainly studied whether a model could select and execute a correct single tool call.
  • As agent systems evolve, however, the central problem has shifted from isolated invocation to multi-tool orchestration over long trajectories with intermediate state, execution feedback, changing environments, and practical constraints such as safety, cost, and verifiability.

Researcher actions

  • Compare this paper against nearby papers in the same arXiv category before using it for protocol decisions.
  • Validate inferred eval signals (Tool-use evaluation, Long-horizon tasks) against the full paper.
  • Use related-paper links to find stronger protocol-specific references.

Caveats

  • Generated from abstract + metadata only; no PDF parsing.
  • Signals below are heuristic and may miss details reported outside the abstract.

Recommended queries

Contribution summary

  • As agent systems evolve, however, the central problem has shifted from isolated invocation to multi-tool orchestration over long trajectories with intermediate state, execution feedback, changing environments, and practical constraints such…
  • We comprehensively review recent progress in multi-tool LLM agents and analyzes the state of the art in this rapidly developing area.
  • Then, we organize the literature around six core dimensions: inference-time planning and execution, training and trajectory construction, safety and control, efficiency under resource constraints, capability completeness in open…

Why it matters for eval

  • As agent systems evolve, however, the central problem has shifted from isolated invocation to multi-tool orchestration over long trajectories with intermediate state, execution feedback, changing environments, and practical constraints such…
  • We comprehensively review recent progress in multi-tool LLM agents and analyzes the state of the art in this rapidly developing area.

Researcher checklist

  • Human feedback protocol is explicit

    No explicit human feedback protocol detected.

  • Evaluation mode is explicit

    Detected: Automatic Metrics

  • Quality control reporting appears

    No calibration/adjudication/IAA control explicitly detected.

  • Benchmark or dataset anchors are present

    No benchmark/dataset anchor extracted from abstract.

  • Metric reporting is present

    No metric terms extracted.