A Toolbox for Improving Evolutionary Prompt Search

Daniel Grie, Maximilian Kimmich, Johannes Maucher, Thang Vu


Abstract
Evolutionary prompt optimization has demonstrated effectiveness in refining prompts for LLMs. However, existing approaches lack robust operators and efficient evaluation mechanisms. In this work, we propose several key improvements to evolutionary prompt optimization that can partially generalize to prompt optimization in general: 1) decomposing evolution into distinct steps to enhance the evolution and its control, 2) introducing an LLM-based judge to verify the evolutions, 3) integrating human feedback to refine the evolutionary operator, and 4) developing more efficient evaluation strategies that maintain performance while reducing computational overhead. Our approach improves both optimization quality and efficiency. We release our code, enabling prompt optimization on new tasks and facilitating further research in this area.
Anthology ID:
2025.luhme-1.6
Volume:
Proceedings of the 2nd LUHME Workshop
Month:
October
Year:
2025
Address:
Bologna, Italy
Editors:
Henrique Lopes Cardoso, Rui Sousa-Silva, Maarit Koponen, Antonio Pareja-Lora
Venue:
LUHME
SIG:
Publisher:
UP - Universidade do Porto (https://doi.org/10.21747/978-989-9193-73-4/lan2), LIACC - Laboratório de Inteligência Artificial e Ciência de Computadores da Universidade do Porto, CLUP - Centro de Linguística da Universidade do Porto, UEF - The University of Eastern Finland \& UAH - Universidad de Alcalá.
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Pages:
58–66
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URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-luhme/2025.luhme-1.6/
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Cite (ACL):
Daniel Grie, Maximilian Kimmich, Johannes Maucher, and Thang Vu. 2025. A Toolbox for Improving Evolutionary Prompt Search. In Proceedings of the 2nd LUHME Workshop, pages 58–66, Bologna, Italy. UP - Universidade do Porto (https://doi.org/10.21747/978-989-9193-73-4/lan2), LIACC - Laboratório de Inteligência Artificial e Ciência de Computadores da Universidade do Porto, CLUP - Centro de Linguística da Universidade do Porto, UEF - The University of Eastern Finland \& UAH - Universidad de Alcalá..
Cite (Informal):
A Toolbox for Improving Evolutionary Prompt Search (Grie et al., LUHME 2025)
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https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-luhme/2025.luhme-1.6.pdf