Structural Chain-of-Thought: Reasoning with Executable Computational Graphs

arXiv:2610.15107v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Chain-of-thought prompting enables reasoning in large language models but produces explanations that are difficult to verify, expensive to generate, and not always faithful. We introduce a Structural Chain-of-Thought framework where models generate executable computational graphs instead of free-form reasoning. The final answer is obtained by deterministically executing the graph. The model is trained using graph-based reinforcement learning that rewards structural validity, answer correctness, and node overlap with reference graphs. Experiments across five benchmarks and four model families show that our method consistently improves accuracy over supervised graph training and can reduce generation length by up to 5-6x compared with standard GRPO and chain-of-thought supervised training. Our faithfulness experiments reveal that models trained with our approach tend to rely on deriving their answers from the generated graphs rather than producing post-hoc rationalizations as usually in chain-of-thought reasoning.

Abstract:Chain-of-thought prompting enables reasoning in large language models but produces explanations that are difficult to verify, expensive to generate, and not always faithful. We introduce a Structural Chain-of-Thought framework where models generate executable computational graphs instead of free-form reasoning. The final answer is obtained by deterministically executing the graph. The model is trained using graph-based reinforcement learning that rewards structural validity, answer correctness, and node overlap with reference graphs. Experiments across five benchmarks and four model families show that our method consistently improves accuracy over supervised graph training and can reduce generation length by up to 5-6x compared with standard GRPO and chain-of-thought supervised training. Our faithfulness experiments reveal that models trained with our approach tend to rely on deriving their answers from the generated graphs rather than producing post-hoc rationalizations as usually in chain-of-thought reasoning.

Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)

arXiv:2610.15107 [cs.AI]

(or arXiv:2610.15107v1 [cs.AI] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.15107 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

aiqbench analysis

Structural Chain-of-Thought: Reasoning with Executable Computational Graphs

Related coverage