ReTreVal: Reasoning Tree with Validation -- A Hybrid Framework for Enhanced LLM Multi-Step Reasoning

Multi-step reasoning remains a key challenge for Large Language Models (LLMs), particularly in complex domains such as mathematics and creative writing. While recent approaches including ReAct, Reflexion, and Self-Refine improve reasoning through iterative refinement and reflection, they often lack structured exploration of alternative solution paths and persistent learning across problems. We propose ReTreVal (Reasoning Tree with Validation), a hybrid framework that integrates Tree-of-Thoughts exploration, self-refinement, LLM-based critique scoring, and reflexion memory to enable bounded and validated multi-step reasoning. ReTreVal constructs a structured reasoning tree with adaptive depth based on problem complexity, where each node undergoes iterative self-critique and refinement guided by explicit LLM-generated feedback. A dual validation mechanism evaluates reasoning quality, coherence, and correctness at each node while persistently storing insights from successful reasoning paths and failure patterns in a reflexion memory buffer, enabling cross-problem learning. Critique-based pruning retains only the top-k highest-scoring nodes at each level, controlling computational cost while preserving high-quality solution paths. We evaluate ReTreVal against ReAct, Reflexion, and Self-Refine across 500 mathematical problems and creative writing tasks using Qwen 2.5 7B as the underlying LLM, and demonstrate that ReTreVal consistently outperforms existing methods through its combination of structured exploration, critique-driven refinement, and cross-problem memory, making it particularly effective for tasks requiring exploratory reasoning, rigorous verification, and knowledge transfer.

ReflexGrad: Three-Way Synergistic Architecture for Zero-Shot Generalization in LLM Agents

Enabling agents to learn from experience and generalize across diverse tasks without task-specific training remains a fundamental challenge in reinforcement learning and decision-making. While recent approaches have explored episodic memory (Reflexion), gradient-based prompt optimization (TextGrad),and hierarchical task decomposition independently, their potential for synergistic integration remains unexplored. We introduce ReflexGrad, a novel architecture that tightly couples three complementary mechanisms: (1) LLM-based hierarchical TODO decomposition for strategic planning, (2) history-aware causal reflection that analyzes recent action patterns to identify failure root causes and enable within-trial learning, and (3) gradient-based optimization for systematic improvement. Unlike prior work relying on few-shot demonstrations, our system achieves true zero-shot generalization through pure LLM semantic reasoning,requiring no task-specific examples, fine-tuning, or hardcoded similarity metrics. Evaluated on ALFWorld benchmark tasks, ReflexGrad demonstrates 67% zero-shot success rate on Trial 0 without any prior task experience or demonstrations, establishing effective performance on first exposure. Through empirical analysis, we identify the architectural mechanisms underlying stable convergence (zero action loops) and effective cross-task transfer (67% to 78% improvement).Our work demonstrates that synergistic integration of complementary learning mechanisms enables robust zero-shot generalization that approaches few-shot baselines from prior work.