Zarya-1.7B

Zarya is a family of hybrid language models that combine a classic auto-regressive (AR) objective with a masked-diffusion (MDM) objective in one model. The architecture can be built on top of any autoregressive model but in this repository it uses the Qwen3 backbone.

Naming explanation: Zarya (pronounced as [zɐˈrʲa] (IPA notation), literally "Dawn" in English) is a figure from Slavic folklore — a female personification of dawn who may be considered a goddess. In various traditions, she can manifest as a single being or as two or three sisters simultaneously.

This is a research prototype.

Model Details

Model Description

Zarya is a research prototype of a family of hybrid language models that jointly learn a classic auto-regressive (AR) objective and a masked-diffusion (MDM) objective within a single model.

Two generation modes are supported, both reachable through a single model.generate(...) call: masked-diffusion (MDM) sampling and slotted-level speculative parallel decoding.

Zarya-1.7B details

Zarya-1.7B has the following features:

Variant hidden_size num_hidden_layers num_attention_heads intermediate_size
Zarya-1.7B 2048 28 16 6144

Context Length: 2048

Uses

Zarya is intended for text generation. It supports conversational fine-tuning (SFT) and classic auto-regressive pretraining.

Direct Use

Direct use is text generation (continuation of a prompt) through the model.generate(...) interface, including chat-style prompts formatted with the provided chat template. Two inference modes are available through the same generate() call. Both modes fully use the KV cache with causal attention masks.

  • MDM sampling (slotted_generation=false): iterative masked-diffusion denoising with the first-hitting sampler.
  • Slotted speculative decoding (slotted_generation=true): parallel slot generation with inter-slot diffusion-based selection and intra-slot autoregressive generation for a decoding speedup.

Out-of-Scope Use

The model is a research prototype. It should not be used for production decisions, safety-critical applications, or any use case where accuracy and reliability are essential without additional evaluation and safeguards. Inference performance and stability also depend on the chosen decoding hyperparameters (like slotted_generation, slot_size, serial_num_blocks, slot_threshold, token_threshold, and others).

Bias, Risks, and Limitations

This is a research prototype. The code relies on Hugging Face Transformers APIs; when upgrading versions, compatibility must be checked (tested on Transformers 5.12.1 and PyTorch 2.9.0). Inference performance and stability depend on the choice of config parameters.

How to Get Started with the Model

Use the code below to get started with the model. Loading the model and tokenizer requires trust_remote_code=True.

import torch
from transformers import AutoModel, AutoTokenizer

model_name = "ai-forever/Zarya-1.7B"

model = AutoModel.from_pretrained(model_name, trust_remote_code=True, torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16).cuda()
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_name, trust_remote_code=True)

prompt = "<|im_start|>user\nHello!<|im_end|>\n<|im_start|>assistant\n"
input_ids = tokenizer(prompt, return_tensors="pt").input_ids.cuda()

# Both modes go through model.generate(...).
# With generation_config.slotted_generation=true -> slotted speculative decoding:
out = model.generate(
    input_ids,
    max_new_tokens=256,
    do_sample=True,
    temperature=0.7,
    slot_size=16,
    serial_num_blocks=4,
    slot_threshold=0.9,
    token_threshold=0.3,
)
# Setting generation_config.slotted_generation=false -> MDM sampling instead:
# out = model.generate(input_ids, max_new_tokens=256)

print(tokenizer.decode(out[0]))

Evaluation

LM-eval benchmarking with the lm-eval package is supported. Example run:

lm_eval run \
--tasks=gsm8k,ifeval,mbpp,mbpp_instruct,mbpp_plus,mbpp_plus_instruct,hellaswag \
--model=hf --confirm_run_unsafe_code \
--log_samples \
--apply_chat_template \
--output_path=./reports/lm-eval_results \
--model_args=pretrained=ai-forever/Zarya-1.7B,backend=causal,dtype=bfloat16,attn_implementation=sdpa,trust_remote_code=True \
--gen_kwargs slotted_generation=true,slot_size=16,serial_num_blocks=4,slot_threshold=0.9,token_threshold=0.4

Zarya-1.7B results

Measurements below were collected with varying inference parameters and on different GPUs; performance is sensitive to both, so results may differ across configurations and hardware setups.

A100, dtype=bfloat16, apply_chat_template, slotted_generation=true,slot_size=16,serial_num_blocks=4,slot_threshold=0.9,token_threshold=0.4

Hardware info: gpu_driver_cuda_version 13.2; gpu_driver_version 595.71.05;

Docker info: Torch: 2.9.0+cu128; Transformers: 5.12.1; CUDNN in torch: 91002; lm-eval == 0.4.12

Tasks Version Filter n-shot Metric Value Stderr
gsm8k 3 flexible-extract 5 exact_match 0.4670 ± 0.0137
strict-match 5 exact_match 0.4685 ± 0.0137
hellaswag 1 none 0 acc 0.4224 ± 0.0049
none 0 acc_norm 0.5472 ± 0.0050
ifeval 4 none 0 inst_level_loose_acc 0.5815 ± N/A
none 0 inst_level_strict_acc 0.5552 ± N/A
none 0 prompt_level_loose_acc 0.4492 ± 0.0214
none 0 prompt_level_strict_acc 0.4288 ± 0.0213
mbpp 1 none 3 pass_at_1 0.3540 ± 0.0214
mbpp_plus 1 none 3 pass_at_1 0.4815 ± 0.0257

H100, dtype=bfloat16, apply_chat_template, slotted_generation=true,slot_size=16,serial_num_blocks=4,slot_threshold=0.9,token_threshold=0.4

Hardware info: gpu_driver_cuda_version 13.0; gpu_driver_version 580.105.08;

Docker info: Torch: 2.9.0+cu128; Transformers: 5.12.1; CUDNN in torch: 91002; lm-eval == 0.4.12

Tasks Version Filter n-shot Metric Value Stderr
arc_challenge 1 none 0 acc 0.4437 ± 0.0145
none 0 acc_norm 0.4573 ± 0.0146
gsm8k 3 flexible-extract 5 exact_match 0.0553 ± 0.0063
strict-match 5 exact_match 0.0455 ± 0.0057
hellaswag 1 none 0 acc 0.4227 ± 0.0049
none 0 acc_norm 0.5474 ± 0.0050
hendrycks_math500 1 none 0 exact_match 0.0040 ± 0.0028
humaneval 1 create_test 0 pass@1 0.0000 ± 0
humaneval_instruct 4 create_test 0 pass@1 0.0549 ± 0.0178
ifeval 4 none 0 inst_level_loose_acc 0.4317 ± N/A
none 0 inst_level_strict_acc 0.4053 ± N/A
none 0 prompt_level_loose_acc 0.3013 ± 0.0197
none 0 prompt_level_strict_acc 0.2791 ± 0.0193
mbpp 1 none 3 pass_at_1 0.0000 ± 0
mbpp_plus 1 none 3 pass_at_1 0.0000 ± 0

H100, dtype=bfloat16, apply_chat_template, slotted_generation=false,T=0,temperature=0.5,top_p=0.8,do_sample=true,noise_schedule=linear

Hardware info: gpu_driver_cuda_version 13.0; gpu_driver_version 580.105.08;

Docker info: Torch: 2.9.0+cu128; Transformers: 5.12.1; CUDNN in torch: 91002; lm-eval == 0.4.12

Tasks Version Filter n-shot Metric Value Stderr
arc_challenge 1 none 0 acc 0.4437 ± 0.0145
none 0 acc_norm 0.4573 ± 0.0146
gsm8k 3 flexible-extract 5 exact_match 0.0091 ± 0.0026
strict-match 5 exact_match 0.0000 ± 0
hellaswag 1 none 0 acc 0.4227 ± 0.0049
none 0 acc_norm 0.5474 ± 0.0050
hendrycks_math500 1 none 0 exact_match 0.0000 ± 0
humaneval 1 create_test 0 pass@1 0.0000 ± 0
humaneval_instruct 4 create_test 0 pass@1 0.0000 ± 0
ifeval 4 none 0 inst_level_loose_acc 0.2002 ± N/A
none 0 inst_level_strict_acc 0.1655 ± N/A
none 0 prompt_level_loose_acc 0.1072 ± 0.0133
none 0 prompt_level_strict_acc 0.0776 ± 0.0115
mbpp 1 none 3 pass_at_1 0.0000 ± 0
mbpp_plus 1 none 3 pass_at_1 0.0000 ± 0

H100, dtype=bfloat16, apply_chat_template, slotted_generation=true,slot_size=16,serial_num_blocks=4,slot_threshold=0.9,token_threshold=0.4,max_gen_toks=2048

Hardware info: gpu_driver_cuda_version 13.0; gpu_driver_version 580.105.08;

Docker info: Torch: 2.9.0+cu128; Transformers: 5.12.1; CUDNN in torch: 91002; lm-eval == 0.4.12

Tasks Version Filter n-shot Metric Value Stderr
arc_challenge 1 none 0 acc 0.4437 ± 0.0145
none 0 acc_norm 0.4573 ± 0.0146
gsm8k 3 flexible-extract 5 exact_match 0.0167 ± 0.0035
strict-match 5 exact_match 0.0099 ± 0.0027
hellaswag 1 none 0 acc 0.4227 ± 0.0049
none 0 acc_norm 0.5474 ± 0.0050
hendrycks_math500 1 none 0 exact_match 0.0000 ± 0
humaneval 1 create_test 0 pass@1 0.0000 ± 0
humaneval_instruct 4 create_test 0 pass@1 0.0671 ± 0.0196
ifeval 4 none 0 inst_level_loose_acc 0.4508 ± N/A
none 0 inst_level_strict_acc 0.4269 ± N/A
none 0 prompt_level_loose_acc 0.3142 ± 0.0200
none 0 prompt_level_strict_acc 0.2865 ± 0.0195
mbpp 1 none 3 pass_at_1 0.0000 ± 0
mbpp_plus 1 none 3 pass_at_1 0.0000 ± 0

Citation

If you find our work helpful, please consider citing (citation will be updated after peer-reviewed publication):

@misc{sinev-etal-2026-Zarya,
  author        = {Sinev, Leonid and Koziev, Ilya and Leshchuk, Vladislav},
  title         = {Zarya: A Hybrid Autoregressive--Masked Diffusion Language Model with Flexible Training and Dual-Mode Inference},
  year          = {2026},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  eprint        = {2609.19868},
  primaryclass  = {cs.CL},
  url           = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.19868},
}
Downloads last month
278
Safetensors
Model size
2B params
Tensor type
BF16
·
Inference Providers NEW
This model isn't deployed by any Inference Provider. 🙋 Ask for provider support

Collection including ai-forever/Zarya-1.7B

Paper for ai-forever/Zarya-1.7B