EMNLP Findings2025
A Category-Theoretic Approach to Neural-Symbolic Task Planning with Bidirectional Search
Shuhui Qu, Jie Wang, Kincho H. Law
Abstract
We introduce a Neural-Symbolic Task Planning framework integrating Large Language Model (LLM) decomposition with categorytheoretic verification for resource-aware, temporally consistent planning. Our approach represents states as objects and valid operations as morphisms in a categorical framework, ensuring constraint satisfaction through mathematical pullbacks. We employ bidirectional search that simultaneously expands from initial and goal states, guided by a learned planning distance function that efficiently prunes infeasible paths. Empirical evaluations across three planning domains demonstrate that our method improves completion rates by up to 6.6% and action accuracy by 9.1%, while eliminating resource violations compared to the existing baselines. These results highlight the synergy between LLM-based operator generation and category-theoretic verification for reliable planning in domains requiring both resourceawareness and temporal consistency.
Ask Lune
Ask anything. The answer quotes the paper.
Lune reads all of it and the papers around it, then shows you the passages behind every answer.
Builds on13
- Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language ModelsJason Wei, Xuezhi Wang, Dale Schuurmans, Maarten Bosma et al.NeurIPS 2022 · 22,562 citations
- Reflexion: language agents with verbal reinforcement learningNoah Shinn, Federico Cassano, Ashwin Gopinath, Karthik Narasimhan et al.NeurIPS 2023 · 5,828 citations
- Language Models as Zero-Shot Planners: Extracting Actionable Knowledge for Embodied AgentsWenlong Huang, Pieter Abbeel, Deepak Pathak, Igor MordatchICML 2022 · 1,539 citations
- LLM-Planner: Few-Shot Grounded Planning for Embodied Agents with Large Language ModelsChan Hee Song, Brian M. Sadler, Jiaman Wu, Wei-Lun Chao et al.ICCV 2023 · 685 citations
- On the Planning Abilities of Large Language Models - A Critical InvestigationKarthik Valmeekam, Matthew Marquez, Sarath Sreedharan, Subbarao KambhampatiNeurIPS 2023 · 509 citations
Related papers
- Hierarchical Planning for Complex Tasks with Knowledge Graph-RAG and Symbolic VerificationFlavio Petruzzellis, Cristina Cornelio, Pietro LioICML 2025
- DecoVer: A Decompose-and-Verify Neuro-Symbolic Framework for Embodied Task Planning with BC+YiXiang Jiang, Binqian Xu, Xiangbo ShuICML 2026
- Towards Reliable Code-as-Policies: A Neuro-Symbolic Framework for Embodied Task PlanningSanghyun Ahn, Wonje Choi, Junyong Lee, Jinwoo Park et al.NeurIPS 2025 · 14 citations
- LLMs as Planning Formalizers: A Survey for Leveraging Large Language Models to Construct Automated Planning ModelsMarcus Tantakoun, Christian Muise, Xiaodan ZhuACL Findings 2025 · 13 citations
- Grounding Generative Planners in Verifiable Logic: A Hybrid Architecture for Trustworthy Embodied AIFeiyu Wu, Xu Zheng, Yue Qu, Zhuocheng Wang et al.ICLR 2026 · 4 citations
