Rule-Based Assessment of Reinforcement Learning Practices Using Large Language Models

In the fast-evolving field of artificial intelligence, Reinforcement Learning (RL) plays a crucial role in developing agents that can make decisions. As these systems become increasingly complex, the need for standardized and automated training methods becomes apparent. This paper presents a rule-based framework that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) and heuristic-based code detectors to ensure compliance with best practices in RL training pipelines. We define a set of architectural rules that target best practices in important areas of RL-based architectures, such as checkpoints, hyperparameter tuning, and agent configuration. We validated our approach through a large-scale industrial case study and ten open-source projects. The results show that LLM-based detectors generally outperform heuristic-based detectors, especially when handling more complex code patterns. This approach effectively identifies best practices with high precision and recall, demonstrating its practical applicability.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-04-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/cain66642.2025.00009
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Software Engineering Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
6.49
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article

Rule-Based Assessment of Reinforcement Learning Practices Using Large Language Models

Evangelos Ntentos, Stephen John Warnett, Uwe Zdun
2 citations
Software Engineering Research
6.49
article

Rule-Based Assessment of Reinforcement Learning Practices Using Large Language Models

Evangelos Ntentos, Stephen John Warnett, Uwe Zdun
article en
2 citations

Abstract

In the fast-evolving field of artificial intelligence, Reinforcement Learning (RL) plays a crucial role in developing agents that can make decisions. As these systems become increasingly complex, the need for standardized and automated training methods becomes apparent. This paper presents a rule-based framework that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) and heuristic-based code detectors to ensure compliance with best practices in RL training pipelines. We define a set of architectural rules that target best practices in important areas of RL-based architectures, such as checkpoints, hyperparameter tuning, and agent configuration. We validated our approach through a large-scale industrial case study and ten open-source projects. The results show that LLM-based detectors generally outperform heuristic-based detectors, especially when handling more complex code patterns. This approach effectively identifies best practices with high precision and recall, demonstrating its practical applicability.

University of Vienna (AT)
Openalex Percentile: Top 4%
Software Engineering Research
6.49
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Rule-Based Assessment of Reinforcement Learning Practices Using Large Language Models — Evangelos Ntentos, Stephen John Warnett, et al. · (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS