Tree of thoughts (ToT)
定义
Tree of thoughts extends CoT by maintaining multiple 推理 branches. At each step, the model generates several continuations; a heuristic (or another model) scores them and guides search (例如 best-first, beam).
当…时使用 a single chain-of-thought path might get stuck (例如 game moves, multi-step planning) and you can afford multiple LLM calls. It trades compute for better search over the space of solutions. See 推理 patterns for the full set of options.
工作原理
Start from a root (例如 the question or initial state). Branch: at each step, generate several continuations (例如 next 推理 steps or moves). Score each branch with a heuristic or a separate model (例如 “how promising is this partial solution?”). Expand the best node(s) and repeat; prune low-scoring branches to limit cost. Search strategy (best-first, beam, BFS) and branching factor control exploration vs compute. The tree is built incrementally until a solution is found or a depth/budget limit is reached.
应用场景
Tree-of-thoughts is useful when you want to explore and score multiple solution paths instead of a single chain.
- Game playing and planning where multiple moves need evaluation
- Math or logic with several solution paths to explore
- Creative or 设计 tasks where generating and scoring options helps
外部文档
- Tree of Thoughts (Yao et al.) — ToT paper
- LangChain – Tree of thoughts — ToT and related patterns