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Sprint projectOct 25, 2026

Does Resetting One Agent Break Mutual Approval? A Matched History-Reset Study of LLM Agent Pairs

Daud Ibrahim, Govardhan Guru Reddy, Emi Eggleton, Salar Humayun Taimuri, Chandani · Team APART1019

Submitted to AI Collusion Research Sprint. Sprint projects are early-stage work by participants, not Apart Research publications.

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Report: Does Resetting One Agent Break Mutual Approval? A Matched History-Reset Study of LLM Agent Pairs

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We tested whether resetting one or both agents’ interaction histories disrupts repeated mutual approval. Two DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash agents solved separate SQLite tasks and evaluated each other under a rule requiring complete raw execution logs and supporting evidence. After three consecutive mutual ACCEPTs, we branched the same checkpoint into Continue, Reset Alice, Reset Bob and Reset Both, using matched future tasks. Across ten selected completed trajectories comprising 120 paired episodes, first-continuation mutual approval occurred in 10/10 Continue branches, 1/10 under each single reset and 0/10 under Reset Both. It returned in every branch during the second episode. All 240 task answers passed independent SQLite reference checks, but a separate saved-record audit found 184 ACCEPT decisions without the required complete unmodified peer log in recorded communication. Constructed cue probes produced 60 REJECT responses with no observed verdict difference. The contribution is a matched-reset evaluation showing why immediate disruption should not be treated as durable success. The study uses one model and a two-episode follow-up; it does not establish a transmission mechanism or general collusion.

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Cite this project

@misc{ibrahim2026resetting,
  title = {{Does Resetting One Agent Break Mutual Approval? A Matched History-Reset Study of LLM Agent Pairs}},
  author = {Daud Ibrahim and Govardhan Guru Reddy and Emi Eggleton and Salar Humayun Taimuri and Chandani},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  note = {Submitted to AI Collusion Research Sprint, an Apart Research Sprint},
  howpublished = {\url{https://apartresearch.com/sprints/projects/does-resetting-one-agent-break-mutual-approval-a-matched-historyreset-study-of-llm-agent-pairs-dq96}},
  url = {https://apartresearch.com/sprints/projects/does-resetting-one-agent-break-mutual-approval-a-matched-historyreset-study-of-llm-agent-pairs-dq96}
}

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