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Model-First Reasoning LLM Agents: Reducing Hallucinations through Explicit Problem Modeling

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Paper Summary

Paperzilla title
LLMs Still Hallucinating? Just Make 'Em Draw a Map First!

This paper proposes Model-First Reasoning (MFR), a method where large language models (LLMs) first explicitly define a problem's structure (like entities, actions, and constraints) before attempting to solve it. Through qualitative evaluation on diverse planning tasks, MFR was found to reduce constraint violations and implicit assumptions while improving plan interpretability compared to Chain-of-Thought and ReAct strategies, despite relying on subjective qualitative assessments rather than exhaustive quantitative benchmarks.

Explain Like I'm Five

Imagine giving a robot a tricky task. Instead of just letting it guess, this paper says we should make the robot first draw a detailed map of the task, showing all the rules and pieces. Then, it uses that map to plan its steps, which helps it make fewer mistakes.

Possible Conflicts of Interest

None identified

Identified Limitations

Qualitative Evaluation
The study relies on qualitative assessments of 'selected task examples' rather than exhaustive quantitative benchmarking, which limits the empirical rigor and the ability to capture fine-grained performance differences.
LLM Dependence for Model Construction
The effectiveness of MFR heavily depends on the LLM's ability to accurately and completely construct the problem model itself; errors in this initial modeling phase can directly cascade into poor plan quality.
Increased Token Overhead
Constructing explicit models prior to reasoning increases both prompt length and the model's output size, which can incur higher computational and cost overheads.
Limited Scope of Benefits
The advantages of MFR are most pronounced in highly structured, constraint-driven planning tasks, suggesting it may not offer significant benefits in less structured or open-ended reasoning scenarios.
Not a Formal Verifier
While MFR reduces the risk of errors, it does not provide formal guarantees of correctness, as the reasoning is still performed by a generative model rather than a symbolic one with inherent verification capabilities.

Rating Explanation

The paper presents a conceptually strong and intuitively appealing approach to address a significant challenge in LLM reasoning (hallucinations and inconsistencies). The idea of separating explicit problem modeling from reasoning is a valuable contribution. However, the reliance on qualitative evaluation over 'selected task examples' rather than rigorous, exhaustive quantitative benchmarking is a notable limitation that prevents a higher rating, as the empirical claims are not as robustly supported as they could be.

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Original Title: Model-First Reasoning LLM Agents: Reducing Hallucinations through Explicit Problem Modeling
Uploaded: December 28, 2025 at 09:16 AM
Privacy: Public