W2T: LoRA Weights Already Know What They Can Do
Not on the map. Why?
Abstract (arXiv)
Each LoRA checkpoint compactly stores task-specific updates in low-rank weight matrices, offering an efficient way to adapt large language models to new tasks and domains. In principle, these weights already encode what the adapter does and how well it performs. In this paper, we ask whether this information can be read directly from the weights, without running the base model or accessing training data. A key obstacle is that a single LoRA update can be factorized in infinitely many ways. Without resolving this ambiguity, models trained on the factors may fit the particular factorization rather than the underlying update. To this end, we propose methodfull, which maps each LoRA update to a provably canonical form via QR decomposition followed by SVD, so that all equivalent factorizations share the same representation. The resulting components are then tokenized and processed by a Transformer to produce a weight-space embedding. Across language and vision LoRA collections, W2T achieves strong results on attribute classification, performance prediction, and adapter retrieval, demonstrating that LoRA weights reliably indicate model behavior once factorization ambiguity is removed. Code is available at https://github.com/xiaolonghan2000/Weight2Token.
Key facts. Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 30 of its 45 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Mar 2026.
Builds on
30 of 45 references.
References · 30
- 2018Think you have Solved Question Answering? Try ARC, the AI2 Reasoning Challengecited by 4,886
- 2014Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wildcited by 3,693
- 2021Program Synthesis with Large Language Modelscited by 3,637
- 2023QLoRA: Efficient Finetuning of Quantized LLMscited by 3,418
- 2019BoolQ: Exploring the Surprising Difficulty of Natural Yes/No Questionscited by 2,183
- 2020GoEmotions: A Dataset of Fine-Grained Emotionscited by 486
- 2024LoRA+: Efficient Low Rank Adaptation of Large Modelscited by 377
- 2023LoraHub: Efficient Cross-Task Generalization via Dynamic LoRA Compositioncited by 364
- 2023Mix-of-Show: Decentralized Low-Rank Adaptation for Multi-Concept Customization of Diffusion Modelscited by 261
- 2023S-LoRA: Serving Thousands of Concurrent LoRA Adapterscited by 152
- 2023LoRA-FA: Efficient and Effective Low Rank Representation Fine-tuningcited by 137
- 2020Predicting Neural Network Accuracy from Weightscited by 110
18 more
- 2023Equivariant Architectures for Learning in Deep Weight Spacescited by 107
- 2024GFT: Graph Foundation Model with Transferable Tree Vocabularycited by 85
- 2020Classifying the classifier: dissecting the weight space of neural networkscited by 65
- 2024Towards Scalable and Versatile Weight Space Learningcited by 41
- 2024LoRA-drop: Efficient LoRA Parameter Pruning based on Output Evaluationcited by 38
- 2024Interpreting the Weight Space of Customized Diffusion Modelscited by 36
- 2025We Should Chart an Atlas of All the World's Modelscited by 25
- 2025Make LoRA Great Again: Boosting LoRA with Adaptive Singular Values and Mixture-of-Experts Optimization Alignmentcited by 23
- 2026Why Reasoning Fails to Plan: A Planning-Centric Analysis of Long-Horizon Decision Making in LLM Agentscited by 23
- 2025Drag-and-Drop LLMs: Zero-Shot Prompt-to-Weightscited by 20
- 2025Beyond Message Passing: Neural Graph Pattern Machinecited by 17
- 2025A Stronger Mixture of Low-Rank Experts for Fine-Tuning Foundation Modelscited by 9
- 2024Dataset Size Recovery from LoRA Weightscited by 7
- 2024Learning on Model Weights using Tree Expertscited by 7
- 2024A LoRA is Worth a Thousand Picturescited by 7
- 2025ORAL: Prompting Your Large-Scale LoRAs via Conditional Recurrent Diffusioncited by 6
- 2025Can this Model Also Recognize Dogs? Zero-Shot Model Search from Weightscited by 5
- 2026Molecular Representations in Implicit Functional Space via Hyper-Networkscited by 5
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 5.
5 papers.
- 2026ProPlay: Procedural World Models for Self-Evolving LLM Agentscited by 2
- 2026Dynamic Neural Graph Encoding of Inference Processes in Deep Weight Spacecited by 1
- 2026Good Agentic Friends Do Not Just Give Verbal Advice: They Can Update Your Weightscited by 0
- 2026Imprint Reader: From Weight-Update Readout to Behavioral Interventioncited by 0
- 2026Harmful SFT Leaves a Continuous Trace in LLM Checkpoint Updatescited by 0
- 2026Harmful SFT Leaves a Continuous Trace in LLM Checkpoint Updates5 Oct 2026
- 2026Imprint Reader: From Weight-Update Readout to Behavioral Intervention28 Sep 2026
- 2026Dynamic Neural Graph Encoding of Inference Processes in Deep Weight Space2 Jul 2026
- 2026ProPlay: Procedural World Models for Self-Evolving LLM Agents11 Jun 2026
- 2026Good Agentic Friends Do Not Just Give Verbal Advice: They Can Update Your Weights13 May 2026