Orion-MSP: Multi-Scale Sparse Attention for Tabular In-Context Learning
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Abstract (arXiv)
Tabular data remain the predominant format for real-world applications. Yet, developing effective neural models for tabular data remains challenging due to heterogeneous feature types and complex interactions occurring at multiple scales. Recent advances in tabular in-context learning (ICL), such as TabPFN and TabICL, have achieved state-of-the-art performance comparable to gradient-boosted trees (GBTs) without task-specific fine-tuning. However, current architectures exhibit key limitations: (1) single-scale feature processing that overlooks hierarchical dependencies, (2) dense attention with quadratic scaling in table width, and (3) strictly sequential component processing that prevents iterative representation refinement and cross-component communication. To address these challenges, we introduce Orion-MSP, a tabular ICL architecture featuring three key innovations: (1) multi-scale processing to capture hierarchical feature interactions; (2) block-sparse attention combining windowed, global, and random patterns for scalable efficiency and long-range connectivity; and (3) a Perceiver-style memory enabling safe bidirectional information flow across components. Across diverse benchmarks, Orion-MSP matches or surpasses state-of-the-art performance while scaling effectively to high-dimensional tables, establishing a new standard for efficient tabular in-context learning. The model is publicly available at https://github.com/Lexsi-Labs/Orion-MSP .
Key facts. Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 37 of its 48 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Nov 2025.
Builds on
37 of 48 references.
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 18.
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- 2026KumoRFM-2: Scaling Foundation Models for Relational Learningcited by 19
- 2025Orion-Bix: Bi-Axial Attention for Tabular In-Context Learningcited by 10
- 2026Exploring Fine-Tuning for Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 9
- 2026TabSwift: An Efficient Tabular Foundation Model with Row-Wise Attentioncited by 8
- 2026Noise Immunity in In-Context Tabular Learning: An Empirical Robustness Analysis of TabPFN's Attention Mechanismscited by 6
- 2026Shaping the Prior: How Synthetic Task Distributions Determine Tabular Foundation Model Qualitycited by 6
- 2026TabDPT-Turbo: Efficient In-Context Learning for Tabular Predictioncited by 6
- 2026MulTaBench: Benchmarking Multimodal Tabular Learning with Text and Imagecited by 2
- 2026Pocket Foundation Models: Distilling TFMs into CPU-Ready Gradient-Boosted Treescited by 2
- 2026Distilling Tabular Foundation Models for Structured Health Datacited by 2
- 2026From Uniform to Learned Knots: A Study of Spline-Based Numerical Encodings for Tabular Deep Learningcited by 0
- 2026TFM-Retouche: A Lightweight Input-Space Adapter for Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 0
7 more
- 2026Data Presentation Over Architecture: Resampling Strategies for Credit Risk Prediction with Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 0
- 2026Ensembling Tabular Foundation Models - A Diversity Ceiling And A Calibration Trapcited by 0
- 2026Topological Signatures of Context-Level Reliability in TabPFNcited by 0
- 2026From Behavior to Provenance: Attributing Tabular Foundation Models to Synthetic Pretraining Datacited by 0
- 2026When Does Synthetic Relational Data Teach Models to Use Relations? Tracing Predictive Structure from Pretraining Data to Model Behaviorcited by 0
- 2026Tabular Foundation Models Are Effectively Shallowcited by 0
- 2026OrionMoE-v1.0: A Mixture-of-Experts Foundation Model for Tabular In-Context Learningcited by 0
- 2026OrionMoE-v1.0: A Mixture-of-Experts Foundation Model for Tabular In-Context Learning14 Oct 2026
- 2026Tabular Foundation Models Are Effectively Shallow9 Oct 2026
- 2026When Does Synthetic Relational Data Teach Models to Use Relations? Tracing Predictive Structure from Pretraining Data to Model Behavior2 Oct 2026
- 2026From Behavior to Provenance: Attributing Tabular Foundation Models to Synthetic Pretraining Data1 Oct 2026
- 2026TabDPT-Turbo: Efficient In-Context Learning for Tabular Prediction2 Aug 2026
- 2026Topological Signatures of Context-Level Reliability in TabPFN20 Jul 2026
- 2026TabSwift: An Efficient Tabular Foundation Model with Row-Wise Attention5 Jun 2026
- 2026Shaping the Prior: How Synthetic Task Distributions Determine Tabular Foundation Model Quality18 May 2026
- 2026Distilling Tabular Foundation Models for Structured Health Data18 May 2026
- 2026Ensembling Tabular Foundation Models - A Diversity Ceiling And A Calibration Trap18 May 2026
- 2026Pocket Foundation Models: Distilling TFMs into CPU-Ready Gradient-Boosted Trees18 May 2026
- 2026Data Presentation Over Architecture: Resampling Strategies for Credit Risk Prediction with Tabular Foundation Models18 May 2026
7 more
- 2026MulTaBench: Benchmarking Multimodal Tabular Learning with Text and Image11 May 2026
- 2026TFM-Retouche: A Lightweight Input-Space Adapter for Tabular Foundation Models7 May 2026
- 2026KumoRFM-2: Scaling Foundation Models for Relational Learning14 Apr 2026
- 2026From Uniform to Learned Knots: A Study of Spline-Based Numerical Encodings for Tabular Deep Learning7 Apr 2026
- 2026Noise Immunity in In-Context Tabular Learning: An Empirical Robustness Analysis of TabPFN's Attention Mechanisms6 Apr 2026
- 2026Exploring Fine-Tuning for Tabular Foundation Models14 Jan 2026
- 2025Orion-Bix: Bi-Axial Attention for Tabular In-Context Learning28 Nov 2025
- 2026KumoRFM-2: Scaling Foundation Models for Relational Learningcited by 19
- 2025Orion-Bix: Bi-Axial Attention for Tabular In-Context Learningcited by 10
- 2026Exploring Fine-Tuning for Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 9
- 2026TabSwift: An Efficient Tabular Foundation Model with Row-Wise Attentioncited by 8
- 2026Noise Immunity in In-Context Tabular Learning: An Empirical Robustness Analysis of TabPFN's Attention Mechanismscited by 6
- 2026Shaping the Prior: How Synthetic Task Distributions Determine Tabular Foundation Model Qualitycited by 6
- 2026TabDPT-Turbo: Efficient In-Context Learning for Tabular Predictioncited by 6
- 2026MulTaBench: Benchmarking Multimodal Tabular Learning with Text and Imagecited by 2
- 2026From Uniform to Learned Knots: A Study of Spline-Based Numerical Encodings for Tabular Deep Learningcited by 0
- 2026TFM-Retouche: A Lightweight Input-Space Adapter for Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 0
- 2026Data Presentation Over Architecture: Resampling Strategies for Credit Risk Prediction with Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 0
- 2026Ensembling Tabular Foundation Models - A Diversity Ceiling And A Calibration Trapcited by 0
12 most cited of 15 All 15 (JSON)
- 2026Tabular Foundation Models Are Effectively Shallow9 Oct 2026
- 2026When Does Synthetic Relational Data Teach Models to Use Relations? Tracing Predictive Structure from Pretraining Data to Model Behavior2 Oct 2026
- 2026TabDPT-Turbo: Efficient In-Context Learning for Tabular Prediction2 Aug 2026
- 2026Topological Signatures of Context-Level Reliability in TabPFN20 Jul 2026
- 2026TabSwift: An Efficient Tabular Foundation Model with Row-Wise Attention5 Jun 2026
- 2026Shaping the Prior: How Synthetic Task Distributions Determine Tabular Foundation Model Quality18 May 2026
- 2026Ensembling Tabular Foundation Models - A Diversity Ceiling And A Calibration Trap18 May 2026
- 2026Data Presentation Over Architecture: Resampling Strategies for Credit Risk Prediction with Tabular Foundation Models18 May 2026
- 2026MulTaBench: Benchmarking Multimodal Tabular Learning with Text and Image11 May 2026
- 2026TFM-Retouche: A Lightweight Input-Space Adapter for Tabular Foundation Models7 May 2026
- 2026KumoRFM-2: Scaling Foundation Models for Relational Learning14 Apr 2026
- 2026From Uniform to Learned Knots: A Study of Spline-Based Numerical Encodings for Tabular Deep Learning7 Apr 2026
12 newest of 15 All 15 (JSON)