Shengtao Zhang← All publications

arXiv preprint · 2026

MemRL: Self-Evolving Agents via Runtime Reinforcement Learning on Episodic Memory

Shengtao Zhang, Jiaqian Wang, Ruiwen Zhou, Junwei Liao, Yuchen Feng, Zhuo Li, Yujie Zheng, Weinan Zhang, Ying Wen, Zhiyu Li, Feiyu Xiong, Yutao Qi, Bo Tang, Muning Wen

AgentsRLMemory

Abstract

MemRL

MemRL studies how a frozen language-model agent can improve during deployment without changing its weights. It separates stable reasoning from an evolving episodic memory, retrieves candidates by semantic relevance, and then selects useful experiences through learned Q-values. Environmental feedback continually refines those values, enabling the agent to retain high-utility strategies and suppress similar but unhelpful memories across reasoning, coding, embodied, and lifelong-agent benchmarks.

A non-parametric route to runtime self-improvement: keep the reasoner stable, let episodic memory learn utility from feedback.