arXiv:2605.12087cs.AIcs.MA2026-05

为智能体系统设计持久可查的中间产物数据模型,提升工作可追溯性。

Intermediate Artifacts as First-Class Citizens: A Data Model for Durable Intermediate Artifacts in Agentic Systems

  • 提出结构化、可版本化的中间产物数据模型,支持跨轮次追踪与修改。
  • 中间产物如证据图、假设列表等可被后续人类或智能体直接使用和修订。
  • 强调评估应关注中间状态质量,而非仅看最终输出结果。

许多AI系统以模型推理、调用工具、观察结果并循环执行的模式运行。这类系统通常只保留最终成果(如备忘录、计划、建议),而生成这些成果的中间过程却难以留存。对于多步骤、可回溯的智能体任务,最终输出往往是对上游状态的有损压缩。本文主张应保留持久、可审查的中间产物:具有类型、结构、可寻址、可版本、依赖感知、权威性强、可被下游计算消费。这些产物并非模型私有的思维链,而是如证据地图、论点结构、标准、假设、计划、转换规则、合成流程、未解矛盾及半成品等可被后人或智能体检视、修正、替代和优化的工作成果。贡献在于构建一个系统级的数据模型,明确区分中间产物与聊天记录、记忆、隐式思维链、叙述文本和最终答案;形式化添加与覆盖更新语义,并通过产物溯源机制实现跨修订的持久中间状态;主张评估应聚焦于维持状态的质量,而非仅关注最终输出。核心观点并非让模型更聪明,而是使生成内容更具可审查性、可修订性和长期可维护性。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Many AI systems are organized around loops in which models reason, call tools, observe results, and continue until a task is complete. These systems often produce final artifacts such as memos, plans, recommendations, and analyses, while the intermediate work that shaped those outputs remains ephemeral. For multi-step, revisable AI work, final artifacts are often lossy projections over upstream state. We argue that such systems should preserve durable, inspectable intermediate artifacts: typed, structured, addressable, versioned, dependency-aware, authoritative, and consumable by downstream computation. These artifacts are not the model's private chain-of-thought. They are maintained work products such as evidence maps, claim structures, criteria, assumptions, plans, transformation rules, synthesis procedures, unresolved tensions, and partial products that later humans and agents can inspect, revise, supersede, and improve. The contribution is a systems-level data model. We distinguish intermediate artifacts from chat transcripts, memory, hidden chain-of-thought, narration, thinking, and final answers; formalize additive and superseding update semantics with explicit current-state resolution; describe how artifact lineage supports durable intermediate state across revisions; and argue that evaluation must target maintained-state quality, not only final-output quality. The claim is not that artifacts make models smarter. It is that durable intermediate artifacts make AI-generated work more inspectable, revisable, and maintainable over time.

智能体系统中间产物可追溯性数据模型

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