TSQAgent: Rating Time Series Data Quality via Dedicated Agentic Reasoning

Shunyu Wu, Dan Li, Haozheng Ye, Weibin Feng, Jian Lou, Bo Zhang, Wenjie Feng, Chenjuan Guo

#2106 of 3355 · Artificial Intelligence
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Tournament Score
1373±44
10501800
48%
Win Rate
10
Wins
11
Losses
21
Matches
Rating
6.8/ 10
Significance
Rigor
Novelty
Clarity

Abstract

Assessing the quality of time series (TS) data is fundamental yet inherently challenging due to the multifaceted nature of quality dimensions. Recently, large language models (LLMs) have emerged as a promising paradigm for TS quality assessment via pairwise comparison and per-dimension evaluation. However, existing approaches rely on manually predefined quality dimensions and purely text-based reasoning, leaving it unknown whether LLMs can identify truly relevant quality dimensions or perform grounded and quantitative quality comparisons. To investigate this, we construct TSQBench, a dedicated benchmark for evaluating LLMs on two progressive capabilities: (i) understanding and identifying relevant quality dimensions, and (ii) performing quality comparison under specific dimensions. Our analysis reveals that current LLMs consistently struggle with both dimension identification and evidence-grounded quality comparison. To address these limitations, we propose TSQAgent, a novel agentic reasoning framework for TS quality rating consisting of three collaborative roles: Perceiver for focused dimension selection, Inspector for dimension-wise quantitative analysis, and Adjudicator that aggregates and refines the final judgment. In particular, we introduce an agentic reasoning strategy that instills the ability to identify and prioritize the most relevant quality dimensions, and further propose an agent workflow equipped with external analytical tools to enable precise quantitative comparisons over selected dimensions. Experiments on both the proposed benchmark and eleven real-world datasets demonstrate that our framework not only substantially improves LLMs' capabilities in quality understanding and quantitative comparison but also effectively translates these improvements into better quality-aware data selection, leading to enhanced downstream performance and data efficiency.

AI Impact Assessments

(1 models)

Scientific Impact Assessment: TSQAgent

1. Core Contribution

TSQAgent addresses the problem of automated time series (TS) data quality assessment using LLM-based agentic reasoning. The paper makes three intertwined contributions: (1) TSQBench, a synthetic benchmark measuring LLMs' ability to identify quality-relevant dimensions and perform evidence-grounded quality comparisons; (2) TSQAgent, a multi-agent framework decomposing quality assessment into perception (Perceiver), dimension-wise quantitative analysis (Inspector), and reflective aggregation (Adjudicator); and (3) a training strategy using GRPO (Group Relative Policy Optimization) tailored for quality dimension selection, combined with a tool-augmented reasoning workflow for quantitative comparison.

The key insight is that vanilla LLMs exhibit two systematic failures in TS quality assessment: they over-select irrelevant quality dimensions (low precision ~33-43% despite reasonable recall) and perform barely above random on fine-grained quality comparison (~55-61%). TSQAgent addresses both via structured agentic decomposition.

2. Methodological Rigor

Benchmark Design: TSQBench is constructed via controlled synthetic degradation across seven quality dimensions (missing values, noise, rare patterns, trend, frequency, amplitude, pattern consistency), with skewed dimension sampling to reflect realistic scenarios. The controlled injection approach enables ground-truth labels for both dimension identification and pairwise comparison. However, the synthetic nature is a notable limitation—real-world quality issues are often entangled and may not decompose cleanly into these seven categories.

Agent Architecture: The three-agent design (Perceiver → Inspector → Adjudicator) is well-motivated by the identified failure modes. The ReAct-style Inspector with 16 analytical tools (statistical, spectral, structural) provides grounded quantitative evidence rather than relying on text-based reasoning alone. The reflection mechanism in the Adjudicator with bounded iterations prevents infinite loops while allowing iterative refinement.

Training Strategy: The GRPO-based training of the Perceiver on 3,320 samples with a precision-oriented reward (Equation 4) is appropriate given the identified over-selection problem. The 0.1/0.9 weighting between format compliance and dimension selection is reasonable.

Evaluation: The evaluation spans both TSQBench (1,000 synthetic samples) and 11 real-world datasets across long-term forecasting, short-term forecasting, and classification. The downstream evaluation using three model architectures (Linear, CNN, PatchTST) with 50% data selection budgets provides a practical test. The cross-dataset TSFM fine-tuning experiment with Timer-S1 (8.3B parameters) adds significance. However, averaging over 10 seeds is good practice, though confidence intervals are not reported in the main tables. The pairwise-to-scalar conversion via Bradley-Terry optimization is standard but introduces an additional modeling step whose quality is not independently validated.

3. Potential Impact

Data-Centric AI for Time Series: This work advances the data-centric paradigm for TS by providing automated quality assessment that goes beyond simple statistical heuristics or computationally expensive Shapley/influence-function methods. The practical demonstration that 75% of quality-selected data matches full-data performance on Timer-S1 has clear implications for training efficiency of foundation models.

Tool-Augmented Reasoning: The 16-tool analytical library is a reusable contribution. The demonstrated improvement from tool augmentation (accuracy jumping from 55-61% to 78-84%) provides compelling evidence for tool-grounded TS analysis.

Broader Applicability: While focused on quality assessment, the framework's decomposition pattern (perception → analysis → aggregation with reflection) could transfer to other TS evaluation tasks. The meta-learning approach for cross-dataset score calibration addresses a practical need in heterogeneous data environments.

4. Timeliness & Relevance

The paper is timely given: (a) the rapid scaling of TS foundation models requiring quality-aware data curation, (b) the growing capability of LLM-based agents for domain-specific tasks, and (c) the increasing recognition that data quality, not just model architecture, is a bottleneck. The connection to TSFM fine-tuning efficiency is particularly relevant as the community scales these models.

5. Strengths & Limitations

Key Strengths:

  • Systematic problem formulation: Cleanly decomposes TS quality assessment into two measurable sub-capabilities with a benchmark to evaluate each.
  • Strong empirical evidence: The benchmark results clearly establish LLM limitations (Table 1), and the proposed solutions demonstrably address them (Figures 2a, 2b).
  • Comprehensive ablations: Component-level analysis (GRPO effect, tool augmentation, dimension groups) provides clear attribution of gains.
  • Practical validation: The Timer-S1 fine-tuning experiment demonstrates real-world utility beyond benchmark metrics.
  • Reproducibility: 16 tools are fully specified with equations, code is released, and training details are thorough.
  • Notable Limitations:

  • Synthetic-to-real gap: TSQBench relies on controlled defect injection. Real-world quality issues are often correlated, ambiguous, and domain-specific. The seven dimensions, while comprehensive, may miss domain-specific quality aspects.
  • Scalability concerns: The multi-agent framework with tool invocation introduces latency. The paper acknowledges this but doesn't quantify end-to-end runtime for large-scale data pools.
  • Limited baselines for agent comparison: The paper doesn't compare against other agentic TS frameworks (e.g., TimeSeriesScientist, TS-Agent) adapted for quality assessment.
  • Absolute scoring gap: The pairwise formulation requires O(n²) comparisons in principle; the Bradley-Terry conversion and its potential failure modes deserve more analysis.
  • Dimension set completeness: The seven dimensions are manually chosen. Whether GRPO-trained selection generalizes to dimensions outside this set is untested.
  • Downstream improvements are modest in some cases: In several Table 2 entries, margins over TSRating are small, and some results show mixed performance (e.g., classification with PatchTST).
  • 6. Additional Observations

    The paper presents a 2026 preprint citing other 2026 works, suggesting a rapidly evolving landscape. The connection between quality dimension identification accuracy and downstream task performance could be more explicitly analyzed—specifically, whether improving benchmark metrics monotonically translates to downstream gains. The meta-learning approach for cross-dataset calibration (Appendix E.2) is interesting but insufficiently validated as a standalone contribution.

    Rating:6.8/ 10
    Significance 7Rigor 6.5Novelty 6.5Clarity 7.5

    Generated Jun 3, 2026

    Comparison History (21)

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