---
id: "yao-tree-of-thoughts"
title: "Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models"
creator: "Shunyu Yao et al."
url: "https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10601"
level: "expert"
category: "prompting"
models: ["any"]
source_date: "2023-05-17"
date_added: "2026-10-18"
---

[Prompting](/prompting/index.md)

# Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models

by Shunyu Yao et al.

[Read the original →](https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10601)

Search over branching reasoning steps; basis for many planning approaches.

The paper treats problem solving as a search over alternative intermediate states. Implementing and evaluating that search requires more orchestration than making a single model call.

Level: [Expert](/levels/index.md#expert)
Models: any
Category: [Prompting](/prompting/index.md)
Tags: [reasoning](/tags/reasoning/index.md), [research](/tags/research/index.md)
Source date: 2023-05-17
Added: 2026-10-18
Last verified: 2026-10-18
Status: ok

Summary in our own words. All rights with the original creator. Correction or removal: DM on X.