Mika Saari

Experimenting with Multi-Agent Software Development: Towards a Unified Platform

Large language models are redefining software engineering by implementing AI-powered techniques throughout the whole software development process, including requirement gathering, software architecture, code generation, testing, and deployment. However, it is still difficult to develop a cohesive platform that consistently produces the best outcomes across all stages. The objective of this study is to develop a unified platform that utilizes multiple artificial intelligence agents to automate the process of transforming user requirements into well-organized deliverables. These deliverables include user stories, prioritization, and UML sequence diagrams, along with the modular approach to APIs, unit tests, and end-to-end tests. Additionally, the platform will organize tasks, perform security and compliance, and suggest design patterns and improvements for non-functional requirements. We allow users to control and manage each phase according to their preferences. In addition, the platform provides security and compliance checks following European standards and proposes design optimizations. We use multiple models, such as GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and Llama3 to enable to generation of modular code as per user choice. The research also highlights the limitations and future research discussions to overall improve the software development life cycle. The source code for our uniform platform is hosted on GitHub, enabling additional experimentation and supporting both research and practical uses. \end

System for systematic literature review using multiple AI agents: Concept and an empirical evaluation

Systematic literature review (SLR) is foundational to evidence-based research, enabling scholars to identify, classify, and synthesize existing studies to address specific research questions. Conducting an SLR is, however, largely a manual process. In recent years, researchers have made significant progress in automating portions of the SLR pipeline to reduce the effort and time required for high-quality reviews; nevertheless, there remains a lack of AI-agent-based systems that automate the entire SLR workflow. To this end, we introduce a novel multi-AI-agent system designed to fully automate SLRs. Leveraging large language models (LLMs), our system streamlines the review process to enhance efficiency and accuracy. Through a user-friendly interface, researchers specify a topic; the system then generates a search string to retrieve relevant academic papers. Next, an inclusion/exclusion filtering step is applied to titles relevant to the research area. The system subsequently summarizes paper abstracts and retains only those directly related to the field of study. In the final phase, it conducts a thorough analysis of the selected papers with respect to predefined research questions. This paper presents the system, describes its operational framework, and demonstrates how it substantially reduces the time and effort traditionally required for SLRs while maintaining comprehensiveness and precision. The code for this project is available at: https://github.com/GPT-Laboratory/SLR-automation .

CodePori: Large Scale Model for Autonomous Software Development by Using Multi-Agents

From Specification to Service: Accelerating API-First Development Using Multi-Agent Systems

This paper presents a system that uses Large Language Models (LLMs)-based agents to automate the API-first development of RESTful microservices. This system helps to create an OpenAPI specification, generate server code from it, and refine the code through a feedback loop that analyzes execution logs and error messages. The integration of log analysis enables the LLM to detect and address issues efficiently, reducing the number of iterations required to produce functional and robust services. This study's main goal is to advance API-first development automation for RESTful web services and test the capability of LLM-based multi-agent systems in supporting the API-first development approach. To test the proposed system's potential, we utilized the PRAB benchmark. The results indicate that if we keep the OpenAPI specification small and focused, LLMs are capable of generating complete functional code with business logic that aligns to the specification. The code for the system is publicly available at https://github.com/sirbh/code-gen

VAPU: System for Autonomous Legacy Code Modernization

In this study, we present a solution for the modernization of legacy applications, an area of code generation where LLM-based multi-agent systems are proving essential for complex multi-phased tasks. Legacy applications often contain deprecated components that create compatibility, security, and reliability risks, but high resource costs make companies hesitate to update. We take a step forward to integrate an LLM-based multi-agent system as part of a legacy web application update to provide a cost-effective solution to update legacy applications autonomously. We propose a multi-agent system named a Verifying Agent Pipeline Updater (VAPU), which is designed to update code files in phases while simulating different roles in a software development team. In our previous study, we evaluated the system for legacy version updates by using six legacy web application view files by resulting errors and accomplished requirements. This study extends the previous evaluation of a multi-agent pipeline system by extending the evaluation of VAPU from a single LLM to five LLMs and using the temperature parameter in both 0 to 1 settings. Additionally, we tested the system with 20 open-source Python GitHub projects. The results of the evaluation were compared to Zero-Shot Learning (ZSL) and One-Shot Learning (OSL) prompts. The extended evaluation of VAPU showed that particularly in a low-temperature VAPU can get similar level of error count compared to the ZSL/OSL prompts but with a higher level of fulfilled requirements, depending on the LLM. VAPU showed up to 22.5% increase in the succeeding Python file update requirements compared to ZSL/OSL prompts. The study indicates that an LLM-based multi-agent system is a capable solution to update components of a legacy application autonomously.

Distributed Approach to Haskell Based Applications Refactoring with LLMs Based Multi-Agent Systems

We present a large language models (LLMs) based multi-agent system to automate the refactoring of Haskell codebases. The multi-agent system consists of specialized agents performing tasks such as context analysis, refactoring, validation, and testing. Refactoring improvements are using metrics such as cyclomatic complexity, run-time, and memory allocation. Experimental evaluations conducted on Haskell codebases demonstrate improvements in code quality. Cyclomatic complexity was reduced by 13.64% and 47.06% in the respective codebases. Memory allocation improved by 4.17% and 41.73%, while runtime efficiency increased by up to 50%. These metrics highlight the systems ability to optimize Haskells functional paradigms while maintaining correctness and scalability. Results show reductions in complexity and performance enhancements across codebases. The integration of LLMs based multi-agent system enables precise task execution and inter-agent collaboration, addressing the challenges of refactoring in functional programming. This approach aims to address the challenges of refactoring functional programming languages through distributed and modular systems.

Autonomous Legacy Web Application Upgrades Using a Multi-Agent System

The use of Large Language Models (LLMs) for autonomous code generation is gaining attention in emerging technologies. As LLM capabilities expand, they offer new possibilities such as code refactoring, security enhancements, and legacy application upgrades. Many outdated web applications pose security and reliability challenges, yet companies continue using them due to the complexity and cost of upgrades. To address this, we propose an LLM-based multi-agent system that autonomously upgrades legacy web applications to the latest versions. The system distributes tasks across multiple phases, updating all relevant files. To evaluate its effectiveness, we employed Zero-Shot Learning (ZSL) and One-Shot Learning (OSL) prompts, applying identical instructions in both cases. The evaluation involved updating view files and measuring the number and types of errors in the output. For complex tasks, we counted the successfully met requirements. The experiments compared the proposed system with standalone LLM execution, repeated multiple times to account for stochastic behavior. Results indicate that our system maintains context across tasks and agents, improving solution quality over the base model in some cases. This study provides a foundation for future model implementations in legacy code updates. Additionally, findings highlight LLMs' ability to update small outdated files with high precision, even with basic prompts. The source code is publicly available on GitHub: https://github.com/alasalm1/Multi-agent-pipeline.

Vibe Coding in Software Development: A Multivocal Literature Review

Vibe coding is a software development practice in which developers state intent in natural language and large language models generate code. It is often framed as one-shot prompting, but the evidence describes an intent-driven, iterative workflow whose outcomes depend on how generated code is evaluated and governed. Knowledge of how vibe coding is defined, practiced, and governed is scattered across academic and practitioner sources, and, to our knowledge, existing reviews have not yet integrated both evidence streams. We conducted a multivocal literature review of peer-reviewed and grey literature following established guidelines. Searches spanned 2022 to October 2025. After screening, credibility assessment, and snowballing, 47 sources were retained (28 peer-reviewed and 19 grey) and analyzed through descriptive mapping and thematic synthesis across eight research questions. Vibe coding is consistently described as an iterative generation-evaluation-revision loop rather than a one-shot activity, and developer work shifts from writing code towards specification, supervision, and validation. Short-term productivity and time-to-prototype gains are reported in 21 of 47 sources (45%), while evidence on maintainability, long-term quality, and safeguard effectiveness remains limited. Evidence is strongest for prototyping and user-interface work and weakest for production, data-intensive, and safety-critical use, and tool visibility does not imply effectiveness. This is one of the first reviews to integrate peer-reviewed and grey literature on vibe coding under a single documented protocol. Future work should evaluate safeguard effectiveness, study session-level dynamics and long-term maintainability, and test vibe coding in production, data-intensive, and safety-critical settings.

From PDF to Dataset: Semi-Automated Extraction of Fine-Tuning Data

Preparing fine-tuning datasets for large language models (LLMs) commonly involves substantial manual effort, particularly in extracting, structuring, and validating data from unstructured sources. This study proposes a semi-automated, human-in-the-loop approach for generating fine-tuning question–answer (QA) pairs from PDF documents. The research investigates how unstructured textual content can be systematically transformed into validated QA data suitable for fine-tuning, while mitigating the risks associated with hallucinated or low-quality model outputs.The proposed system consists of a web-based architecture combining a React frontend with a Flask backend interfacing with the OpenAI API. Users provide a PDF document and a target page range, after which the system extracts text and generates candidate QA pairs. These candidates are presented for manual inspection, filtering, and refinement, prior to export in a structured JSON format compatible with fine-tuning pipelines.The results indicate that the proposed approach reduces the effort required for manual dataset construction while preserving data quality through mandatory human validation. The study highlights the effectiveness of hybrid automation workflows in accelerating fine-tuning dataset preparation without compromising reliability, and contributes design insights for human-centered tools supporting LLM customization.

Specializing LLMs with Custom Datasets: A Four-Round Open vs Closed Comparison

Engineering RAG Systems for Real-World Applications: Design, Development, and Evaluation

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems are emerging as a key approach for grounding Large Language Models (LLMs) in external knowledge, addressing limitations in factual accuracy and contextual relevance. However, there is a lack of empirical studies that report on the development of RAG-based implementations grounded in real-world use cases, evaluated through general user involvement, and accompanied by systematic documentation of lessons learned. This paper presents five domain-specific RAG applications developed for real-world scenarios across governance, cybersecurity, agriculture, industrial research, and medical diagnostics. Each system incorporates multilingual OCR, semantic retrieval via vector embeddings, and domain-adapted LLMs, deployed through local servers or cloud APIs to meet distinct user needs. A web-based evaluation involving a total of 100 participants assessed the systems across six dimensions: (i) Ease of Use, (ii) Relevance, (iii) Transparency, (iv) Responsiveness, (v) Accuracy, and (vi) Likelihood of Recommendation. Based on user feedback and our development experience, we documented twelve key lessons learned, highlighting technical, operational, and ethical challenges affecting the reliability and usability of RAG systems in practice.

LLM-based Multi-Agent System for Intelligent Refactoring of Haskell Code

Refactoring is a constant activity in software development and maintenance. Scale and maintain software systems are based on code refactoring. However, this process is still labor intensive, as it requires programmers to analyze the codebases in detail to avoid introducing new defects. In this research, we put forward a large language model (LLM)-based multi-agent system to automate the refactoring process on Haskell code. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effect of LLM-based agents in performing structured and semantically accurate refactoring on Haskell code. Our proposed multi-agent system based on specialized agents with distinct roles, including code analysis, refactoring execution, verification, and debugging. To test the effectiveness and practical applicability of the multi-agent system, we conducted evaluations using different open-source Haskell codebases. The results of the experiments carried out showed that the proposed LLM-based multi-agent system could average 11.03% decreased complexity in code, an improvement of 22.46% in overall code quality, and increase performance efficiency by an average of 13.27%. Furthermore, memory allocation was optimized by up to 14.57%. These results highlight the ability of LLM-based multi-agent in managing refactoring tasks targeted toward functional programming paradigms. Our findings hint that LLM-based multi-agent systems integration into the refactoring of functional programming languages can enhance maintainability and support automated development workflows.