# Attention-Scoped Guidance: Training-Free Spatial Control for Image Editing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.37492 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.37492/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 21 of its 24 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 28 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [InstructPix2Pix: Learning to Follow Image Editing Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09800/) (2022)
- [Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01626/) (2022)
- [Null-text Inversion for Editing Real Images using Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09794/) (2022)
- [Attend-and-Excite: Attention-Based Semantic Guidance for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.13826/) (2023)
- [MagicBrush: A Manually Annotated Dataset for Instruction-Guided Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.10012/) (2023)
- [Blended Latent Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.02779/) (2022)
- [What the DAAM: Interpreting Stable Diffusion Using Cross Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.04885/) (2022)
- [Guiding Instruction-based Image Editing via Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.17102/) (2023)
- [HIVE: Harnessing Human Feedback for Instructional Visual Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09618/) (2023)
- [InstructDiffusion: A Generalist Modeling Interface for Vision Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.03895/) (2023)
- [Focus on Your Instruction: Fine-grained and Multi-instruction Image Editing by Attention Modulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10113/) (2023)
- [ZONE: Zero-Shot Instruction-Guided Local Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16794/) (2023)
- [Rethinking the Spatial Inconsistency in Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.05384/) (2024)
- [EditVal: Benchmarking Diffusion Based Text-Guided Image Editing Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02426/) (2023)
- [LIME: Localized Image Editing via Attention Regularization in Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09256/) (2023)
- [Kontinuous Kontext: Continuous Strength Control for Instruction-based Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.08532/) (2025)
- [Instruct-CLIP: Improving Instruction-Guided Image Editing with Automated Data Refinement Using Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18406/) (2025)
- [Draw-In-Mind: Rebalancing Designer-Painter Roles in Unified Multimodal Models Benefits Image Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.01986/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Instruction-guided image editing should change what the instruction names and leave the rest of the image untouched. In dual classifier-free guidance (CFG), an editor combines two directions at every denoising step, one that pushes toward the instructed edit and one that pulls back toward the source image, using global weights. We introduce Attention-Scoped Guidance (ASG), a sampler wrapper that makes these weights spatial. It reads a soft support map from the instruction attention that the editor already computes, then weakens text guidance where support is low and strengthens image anchoring where support is high. The wrapper requires no training, no external mask, and no additional network evaluation. On the full MagicBrush and PIE-Bench++ splits, ASG improves preservation-oriented metrics, leading three of four MagicBrush metrics and PIE-Bench++ background PSNR. A dose-matched control that removes the spatial placement loses up to 0.73 CLIP on PIE-Bench++, confirming that the spatial allocation itself carries the gain.