diff --git a/ldp/alg/__init__.py b/ldp/alg/__init__.py
index d0524022..e33b5bb9 100644
--- a/ldp/alg/__init__.py
+++ b/ldp/alg/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from .algorithms import discounted_returns, to_network
+from .algorithms import to_network
 from .beam_search import Beam, BeamSearchRollout
 from .callbacks import (
     Callback,
@@ -42,6 +42,5 @@
     "TrajectoryMetricsCallback",
     "TreeSearchRollout",
     "WandBLoggingCallback",
-    "discounted_returns",
     "to_network",
 ]
diff --git a/ldp/alg/algorithms.py b/ldp/alg/algorithms.py
index 567ded74..9e74845d 100644
--- a/ldp/alg/algorithms.py
+++ b/ldp/alg/algorithms.py
@@ -9,51 +9,6 @@
 from ldp.graph.ops import GradOutType, OpResult
 
 
-def discounted_returns(
-    rewards: list[float], terminated: list[bool], discount: float = 1.0
-) -> list[float]:
-    r"""
-    Calculate the discounted returns for a list of rewards, considering termination flags and a discount factor.
-
-    The discounted return represents the future discounted rewards from each time step onwards, taking into account
-    whether an episode has terminated at each step.
-
-    The discounted return \( G_t \) is given by:
-
-    .. math::
-        G_t = \sum_{k=1}^{\infty} \gamma^{k-1} R_{t+k}
-
-        where:
-        - \( G_t \) is the discounted return starting from time step \( t \).
-        - \( \gamma \) is the discount factor.
-        - \( R_{t+k} \) is the reward received at time step \( t+k \).
-
-
-    Args:
-        rewards: A list of rewards at each time step.
-        terminated: A list of boolean flags indicating whether the episode terminated at each time step.
-        discount: Discount factor to apply to future rewards. Defaults to 1.0 which means no discounting is applied.
-
-    Returns:
-        A list of discounted returns (rewards to go), with each element representing the
-            total discounted reward from that step onwards.
-
-    Example:
-        >>> rewards = [1.0, 2.0, 3.0]
-        >>> terminated = [False, False, True]
-        >>> discounted_returns(rewards, terminated, discount=0.9)
-        [5.23, 4.7, 3.0]
-    """
-    returns = []
-    r = 0.0
-    for reward, term in zip(reversed(rewards), reversed(terminated), strict=False):
-        # 1 - term is 0 if the episode has terminated
-        r = reward + discount * r * (1 - term)
-        returns.append(r)
-    returns.reverse()
-    return returns
-
-
 def to_network(  # noqa: C901
     op_result: OpResult,
     max_label_height: int | None = None,
diff --git a/ldp/alg/beam_search.py b/ldp/alg/beam_search.py
index a5fc2aaa..1c883e9f 100644
--- a/ldp/alg/beam_search.py
+++ b/ldp/alg/beam_search.py
@@ -7,10 +7,11 @@
 from aviary.env import Environment
 
 from ldp.agent.agent import Agent, TAgentState
-from ldp.alg.callbacks import Callback
-from ldp.alg.rollout import AgentError, EnvError, TEnv, reraise_exc_as
 from ldp.data_structures import Trajectory, Transition
 
+from .callbacks import Callback
+from .rollout import AgentError, EnvError, TEnv, reraise_exc_as
+
 
 class Beam(NamedTuple):
     # An ongoing beam contains two things: the trajectory up to now
diff --git a/ldp/alg/datasets.py b/ldp/alg/datasets.py
index 687587fc..a86892e7 100644
--- a/ldp/alg/datasets.py
+++ b/ldp/alg/datasets.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 from aviary.env import TASK_DATASET_REGISTRY
 from aviary.env import DummyTaskDataset as _DummyTaskDataset
 
-from ldp.alg.callbacks import ComputeTrajectoryMetricsMixin
+from .callbacks import ComputeTrajectoryMetricsMixin
 
 
 class DummyTaskDataset(_DummyTaskDataset, ComputeTrajectoryMetricsMixin):
diff --git a/ldp/alg/rollout.py b/ldp/alg/rollout.py
index ace16eb7..eec32ae5 100644
--- a/ldp/alg/rollout.py
+++ b/ldp/alg/rollout.py
@@ -10,9 +10,10 @@
 from aviary.message import Message
 
 from ldp.agent import Agent
-from ldp.alg.callbacks import Callback
 from ldp.data_structures import Trajectory, Transition
 
+from .callbacks import Callback
+
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
diff --git a/ldp/alg/runners.py b/ldp/alg/runners.py
index 2a801997..010bfc45 100644
--- a/ldp/alg/runners.py
+++ b/ldp/alg/runners.py
@@ -10,14 +10,15 @@
 from pydantic import BaseModel, ConfigDict, Field
 
 from ldp.agent import Agent
-from ldp.alg.callbacks import Callback, ClearContextCallback
 from ldp.alg.optimizer import Optimizer
-from ldp.alg.rollout import RolloutManager
 from ldp.data_structures import Trajectory
 from ldp.graph.op_utils import eval_mode, train_mode
 from ldp.graph.ops import OpResult
 from ldp.shims import tqdm, trange
 
+from .callbacks import Callback, ClearContextCallback
+from .rollout import RolloutManager
+
 
 async def _run_eval_loop(
     dataset: TaskDataset,
diff --git a/ldp/alg/tree_search.py b/ldp/alg/tree_search.py
index f4621f54..6662c3f6 100644
--- a/ldp/alg/tree_search.py
+++ b/ldp/alg/tree_search.py
@@ -8,8 +8,10 @@
 from aviary.utils import is_coroutine_callable
 
 from ldp.agent import Agent
-from ldp.alg.callbacks import Callback
-from ldp.alg.rollout import (
+from ldp.data_structures import TransitionTree
+
+from .callbacks import Callback
+from .rollout import (
     AgentError,
     CaughtError,
     EnvError,
@@ -17,7 +19,6 @@
     TEnv,
     reraise_exc_as,
 )
-from ldp.data_structures import TransitionTree
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
diff --git a/ldp/data_structures.py b/ldp/data_structures.py
index c2814be6..00c923d2 100644
--- a/ldp/data_structures.py
+++ b/ldp/data_structures.py
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@
 from aviary.tools import ToolRequestMessage, ToolResponseMessage
 from pydantic import BaseModel, ConfigDict, Field, JsonValue, field_validator
 
-from ldp.alg.algorithms import discounted_returns
 from ldp.graph.ops import OpResult
+from ldp.utils import discounted_returns
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
diff --git a/ldp/utils.py b/ldp/utils.py
index c6ebe2e7..78b44276 100644
--- a/ldp/utils.py
+++ b/ldp/utils.py
@@ -58,3 +58,49 @@ def configure_stdout_logs(
         },
         "root": {"level": level, "handlers": ["stdout"]},
     })
+
+
+def discounted_returns(
+    rewards: list[float], terminated: list[bool], discount: float = 1.0
+) -> list[float]:
+    r"""
+    Calculate the discounted returns for a list of rewards, considering termination flags and a discount factor.
+
+    The discounted return represents the future discounted rewards from each time step onwards, taking into account
+    whether an episode has terminated at each step.
+
+    The discounted return \( G_t \) is given by:
+
+    .. math::
+        G_t = \sum_{k=1}^{\infty} \gamma^{k-1} R_{t+k}
+
+        where:
+        - \( G_t \) is the discounted return starting from time step \( t \).
+        - \( \gamma \) is the discount factor.
+        - \( R_{t+k} \) is the reward received at time step \( t+k \).
+
+    NOTE: this could live in ldp.alg, but it's here to avoid circular imports.
+
+    Args:
+        rewards: A list of rewards at each time step.
+        terminated: A list of boolean flags indicating whether the episode terminated at each time step.
+        discount: Discount factor to apply to future rewards. Defaults to 1.0 which means no discounting is applied.
+
+    Returns:
+        A list of discounted returns (rewards to go), with each element representing the
+            total discounted reward from that step onwards.
+
+    Example:
+        >>> rewards = [1.0, 2.0, 3.0]
+        >>> terminated = [False, False, True]
+        >>> discounted_returns(rewards, terminated, discount=0.9)
+        [5.23, 4.7, 3.0]
+    """
+    returns = []
+    r = 0.0
+    for reward, term in zip(reversed(rewards), reversed(terminated), strict=False):
+        # 1 - term is 0 if the episode has terminated
+        r = reward + discount * r * (1 - term)
+        returns.append(r)
+    returns.reverse()
+    return returns
diff --git a/tests/test_algorithms.py b/tests/test_algorithms.py
index a953dec8..e1d45d64 100644
--- a/tests/test_algorithms.py
+++ b/tests/test_algorithms.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 from aviary.env import DummyEnv
 
 from ldp.agent import SimpleAgent
-from ldp.alg import discounted_returns
+from ldp.utils import discounted_returns
 
 
 @pytest.mark.asyncio