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abstract indexed · arXiv 2608.30147 · updated 2026-10-18

CAST: Critique-Aware Supervision for Training Reliable Long-Horizon Tool-Calling Agents

First page of CAST: Critique-Aware Supervision for Training Reliable Long-Horizon Tool-Calling Agents
From the original paper · arXiv 2608.30147Page 1. Select the image to read the PDF.

CAST replaces prompt-based critique agents and outcome-only reinforcement signals with a trained critique model that converts sparse task outcomes into action-level rationales, which then supervise policy fine-tuning. The cost is a trajectory-analysis and rationale-synthesis pipeline plus fine-tuning of both a critique model and a policy model, which fits a single 24 GB GPU only for smaller Qwen3 variants with parameter-efficient methods and adds training-data engineering complexity. It can fail when synthesized rationales are incorrect or unfaithful under partial observability, when the target domain lacks sufficient logged trajectories, or when error modes shift after deployment, since the reported gains are benchmark-specific.

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recommendation
test
research area
tool use
technical change
Critique-aware fine-tuning for tool-calling agents
published
2026-08-31

The method targets a real production need (intercepting irreversible tool actions) and is reproducible at small scale with LoRA fine-tuning, but its benefit depends on having domain trajectories and validating rationale quality on the reader's own workload.

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  1. claim 01Paperraft inference
    Read the brief interpretation

    CAST replaces prompt-based critique agents and outcome-only reinforcement signals with a trained critique model that converts sparse task outcomes into action-level rationales, which then supervise policy fine-tuning. The cost is a trajectory-analysis and rationale-synthesis pipeline plus fine-tuning of both a critique model and a policy model, which fits a single 24 GB GPU only for smaller Qwen3 variants with parameter-efficient methods and adds training-data engineering complexity. It can fail when synthesized rationales are incorrect or unfaithful under partial observability, when the target domain lacks sufficient logged trajectories, or when error modes shift after deployment, since the reported gains are benchmark-specific.

    This is a Paperraft inference. It is not pinned to a verified PDF passage.

    Inspect the source
  2. claim 02Paperraft inference

    Fine-tuned Qwen3-family models outperform GPT-OSS-120B by over 10 pass^4 points on Retail tasks and gain an additional 9% on out-of-domain Telehealth tasks.

    This is a Paperraft inference. It is not pinned to a verified PDF passage.

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arXiv 2608.30147

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