TabAgent: A Framework for Replacing Agentic Generative Components with Tabular-Textual Classifiers

Ido Levy, Eilam Shapira, Yinon Goldshtein, Avi Yaeli, Nir Mashkif, Segev Shlomov · Feb 18, 2026 · Citations: 0

Abstract

Agentic systems, AI architectures that autonomously execute multi-step workflows to achieve complex goals, are often built using repeated large language model (LLM) calls for closed-set decision tasks such as routing, shortlisting, gating, and verification. While convenient, this design makes deployments slow and expensive due to cumulative latency and token usage. We propose TabAgent, a framework for replacing generative decision components in closed-set selection tasks with a compact textual-tabular classifier trained on execution traces. TabAgent (i) extracts structured schema, state, and dependency features from trajectories (TabSchema), (ii) augments coverage with schema-aligned synthetic supervision (TabSynth), and (iii) scores candidates with a lightweight classifier (TabHead). On the long-horizon AppWorld benchmark, TabAgent maintains task-level success while eliminating shortlist-time LLM calls, reducing latency by approximately 95% and inference cost by 85-91%. Beyond tool shortlisting, TabAgent generalizes to other agentic decision heads, establishing a paradigm for learned discriminative replacements of generative bottlenecks in production agent architectures.

Human Data Lens

Uses human feedback: No
Feedback types: None
Rater population: Unknown
Unit of annotation: Unknown
Expertise required: General

Evaluation Lens

Evaluation modes: Automatic Metrics
Agentic eval: Long Horizon
Quality controls: Not reported
Confidence: 0.45
Flags: ambiguous

Research Summary

Contribution Summary

Agentic systems, AI architectures that autonomously execute multi-step workflows to achieve complex goals, are often built using repeated large language model (LLM) calls for closed-set decision tasks such as routing, shortlisting, gating,
While convenient, this design makes deployments slow and expensive due to cumulative latency and token usage.
We propose TabAgent, a framework for replacing generative decision components in closed-set selection tasks with a compact textual-tabular classifier trained on execution traces.

Why It Matters For Eval

Agentic systems, AI architectures that autonomously execute multi-step workflows to achieve complex goals, are often built using repeated large language model (LLM) calls for closed-set decision tasks such as routing, shortlisting, gating,
We propose TabAgent, a framework for replacing generative decision components in closed-set selection tasks with a compact textual-tabular classifier trained on execution traces.