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cs.CL · 2608.06663 · 2026-08-07

The Horizon Gap: Planning, Memory, Execution, Training, and Evaluation for Long-Horizon LLM Agents

Mingguang Chen,Licheng Wang,Bo Qu
TL;DR:大模型单步推理很强,却在跨小时级任务中失败。这篇综述基于 1,547 篇论文,系统梳理了 planning / memory / execution / training / evaluation 五个维度的缺口(horizon gap),并指出多数失败源于把五个性质混为一谈。

🎯 问题

大模型在单次前向推理中能解决多年研究难度的推理题,却在多小时的 agent 任务中失败:丢失早期决策、把半成品谎报为完成、逐渐偏离目标。作者称之为 horizon gap,但现有文献常把长程任务中的规划、记忆、执行、训练、评测五个性质混为一谈。

🔬 方法

对 2024-2026 年 1,547 篇论文做系统性综述(seed harvest + 26.8% bleed filter),先区分五个被混淆的性质,再按 planning & decomposition / memory & context / execution control & recovery / training / evaluation 建立分类体系,并给出与既有 survey 的定位差异。
章节结构(全文标题提取):
1. Introduction
2. Preliminaries
2.1 Definitions
2.2 Corpus construction
2.3 Taxonomy
2.4 Positioning vs. existing surveys
3. Planning & Decomposition
4. Memory & Context Management
5. Execution Control & Recovery
6. Training for Long Horizons

📊 结果

把 long-horizon agent 研究拆成五个可独立评估的维度,指出多数失败源于性质混淆,为未来工作提供了统一的评测与改进框架。

📝 原文摘要

▶ 原文摘要 Abstract
Frontier language models solve reasoning problems in a single forward pass that would have been research contributions years ago, yet fail at multi-hour tasks: losing track of earlier decisions, declaring half-finished work done, or drifting from goals. We call this the horizon gap and survey 1,547 arXiv papers (2024-2026) collected via systematic seed harvest with a disclosed 26.8% bleed filter, extended by targeted supplementation. We disambiguate three routinely conflated properties: long-horizon (task property: required steps), long-context (model property: token capacity), and long-term memory (system property: persistence across steps/sessions). We organize the corpus into six categories tracking a long-horizon task's lifecycle -- planning, memory, execution, training, evaluation, and foundations/safety -- crossed with an axis capturing where horizons are carried (within-context, within-task-beyond-context, or cross-task-persistent). Across all categories, we find the same pattern: outcome-only signals grow uninformative as horizons lengthen, and the field's response -- whether process reward models, credit assignment, or trajectory-level diagnostics -- manufactures denser step-level signals. We treat critical and diagnostic literature as first-class threads throughout, arguing that segregating critique from method would routinely split single papers across chapters. We close by naming open measurement problems: decomposing model versus harness capability, managing correlated bias in process-level signals used for both training and evaluation, and whether long-horizon reliability admits general predictive theory.
Deep Read · 2026-08-11高松灯 / Agent 日报
AgentLong-HorizonSurveyMemory