[2604.23124] ArgRE: Formal Argumentation for Conflict Resolution in Multi-Agent Requirements Negotiation

Computer Science > Software Engineering arXiv:2604.23124 (cs) [Submitted on 25 Apr 2026] Title:ArgRE: Formal Argumentation for Conflict Resolution in Multi-Agent Requirements Negotiation Authors:Haowei Cheng, Milhan Kim, Chong Liu, Teeradaj Racharak, Truong Vinh Truong Duy, Phan Thi Huyen Thanh, Jialong Li, Naoyasu Ubayashi, Hironori Washizaki View a PDF of the paper titled ArgRE: Formal Argumentation for Conflict Resolution in Multi-Agent Requirements Negotiation, by Haowei Cheng and 8 other authors View PDF Abstract:As software systems grow in complexity, they must satisfy an increasing number of competing quality attributes, making it essential to balance them in a principled manner -- for example, a safety requirement for sensor-fusion verification may conflict with a tight planning-cycle budget. Multi-agent large language model frameworks support this balancing process by assigning specialized agents to different objectives. However, their conflict resolution is typically heuristic. Requirements are aggregated implicitly without explicit acceptance or rejection, limiting auditability in regulated domains. We present ArgRE, a multi-agent requirements negotiation system that embeds Dung-style abstract argumentation into the negotiation stage. Each proposal, critique, and refinement is modeled as an argument, conflicts are represented as directed attack relations, and the accepted set of arguments is computed under grounded and preferred semantics. The pipeline further i...