FAVE: Flow-based Average Velocity Establishment for Sequential Recommendation
Abstract
Generative recommendation has emerged as a transformative paradigm for capturing the dynamic evolution of user intents in sequential recommendation. While flow-based methods improve the efficiency of diffusion models, they remain hindered by the ''Noise-to-Data'' paradigm, which introduces two critical inefficiencies: prior mismatch, where generation starts from uninformative noise, forcing a lengthy recovery trajectory; and linear redundancy, where iterative solvers waste computation on modeling deterministic preference transitions. To address these limitations, we propose a Flow-based Average Velocity Establishment (Fave) framework for one-step generation recommendation that learns a direct trajectory from an informative prior to the target distribution. Fave is structured via a progressive two-stage training strategy. In Stage 1, we establish a stable preference space through dual-end semantic alignment, applying constraints at both the source (user history) and target (next item) to prevent representation collapse. In Stage 2, we directly resolve the efficiency bottlenecks by introducing a semantic anchor prior, which initializes the flow with a masked embedding from the user's interaction history, providing an informative starting point. Then we learn a global average velocity, consolidating the multi-step trajectory into a single displacement vector, and enforce trajectory straightness via a JVP-based consistency constraint to ensure one-step generation. Extensive experiments on three benchmarks demonstrate that Fave not only achieves state-of-the-art recommendation performance but also delivers an order-of-magnitude improvement in inference efficiency, making it practical for latency-sensitive scenarios. Code is available at https://github.com/Blue130/Fave
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ching Law | 44 | 100 Uni-Layout: Integrating Human Feedback in Unified Layout Generation and Evaluation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 100 MoFu: Scale-Aware Modulation and Fourier Fusion for Multi-Subject Video Generation (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 63 AutoPP: Towards Automated Product Poster Generation and Optimization (2026) Advertising and Auction Mechanisms |
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| 2 | Xialong Liu | 41 | 71 S-Diff: An Anisotropic Diffusion Model for Collaborative Filtering in Spectral Domain (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 63 Expert-Guided Diffusion Planner for Auto-Bidding (2025) Advertising and Auction Mechanisms 48 CROLoss: Towards a Customizable Loss for Retrieval Models in Recommender Systems (2022) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Yanan Niu | 43 |
Area-chair candidates (6)
| Yanan Niu assigned | 43 | 15 papers | |
| Xin Xin 0003 COI: co-author | 43 | 10 papers | |
| Leyu Lin | 41 | 15 papers | |
| Maolin Wang 0001 | 40 | 15 papers | |
| Kun Gai | 40 | 5 papers | |
| Weiming Liu 0005 | 40 | 8 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zhengyi Yang 0007 | 60 | 3 | 100 Generate What You Prefer: Reshaping Sequential Recommendation via Guided Diffusion (2023) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 100 On Efficiency-Effectiveness Trade-off of Diffusion-based Recommenders (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 2 | Lantao Hu | 49 | 3 | 100 Fading to Grow: Growing Preference Ratios via Preference Fading Discrete Diffusion for Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 76 Distinguished Quantized Guidance for Diffusion-based Sequence Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 3 | Shuchang Liu 0001 | 48 | 3 | 72 Modeling User Retention through Generative Flow Networks (2024) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 71 Fading to Grow: Growing Preference Ratios via Preference Fading Discrete Diffusion for Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 4 | Jianling Wang | 45 | 3 | 51 A Hierarchical Self-Attentive Model for Recommending User-Generated Item Lists (2019) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 49 Recurrent Recommendation with Local Coherence (2019) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 5 | Xuanhua Yang | 45 | 3 | 71 Towards Personalized Bundle Creative Generation with Contrastive Non-Autoregressive Decoding (2022) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 48 GenRec: A Preference-Oriented Generative Framework for Large-Scale Recommendation (2026) Generative Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 6 | Chongming Gao | 45 | 3 | 49 DLCRec: A Novel Approach for Managing Diversity in LLM-Based Recommender Systems (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization 49 MGFRec: Towards Reinforced Reasoning Recommendation with Multiple Groundings and Feedback (2026) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 7 | Mengyuan Jing | 44 | 3 | 72 Generating Difficulty-aware Negative Samples via Conditional Diffusion for Multi-modal Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 69 Interest-Aware Graph Contrastive Learning for Recommendation With Diffusion-Based Augmentation (2026) Graph Contrastive and Self-Supervised Learning |
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| 8 | Seongmin Park 0002 | 44 | 3 | 50 Temporal Linear Item-Item Model for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 49 MUFFIN: Mixture of User-Adaptive Frequency Filtering for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 9 | Fei Sun 0001 | 44 | 3 | 49 XDM: Improving Sequential Deep Matching with Unclicked User Behaviors for Recommender System (2022) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling 48 Personalized re-ranking for recommendation (2019) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
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| 10 | Han Li 0005 | 44 | 3 | 74 DiffusionGS: Generative Search with Query Conditioned Diffusion in Kuaishou (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 51 Generative Recommender with End-to-End Learnable Item Tokenization (2025) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 11 | Jiancan Wu | 44 | 3 | 68 Generate What You Prefer: Reshaping Sequential Recommendation via Guided Diffusion (2023) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 62 Fading to Grow: Growing Preference Ratios via Preference Fading Discrete Diffusion for Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 12 | Ching Law assigned | 44 | 3 | 100 Uni-Layout: Integrating Human Feedback in Unified Layout Generation and Evaluation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 100 MoFu: Scale-Aware Modulation and Fourier Fusion for Multi-Subject Video Generation (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
|
| 13 | Bo Peng 0009 | 44 | 3 | 51 M2: Mixed Models With Preferences, Popularities and Transitions for Next-Basket Recommendation (2023) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 49 eCeLLM: Generalizing Large Language Models for E-commerce from Large-scale, High-quality Instruction Data (2024) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 14 | Jizhi Zhang | 43 | 3 | 51 Learnable Item Tokenization for Generative Recommendation (2024) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs 51 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 15 | Bowen Zheng 0005 | 43 | 3 | 49 Reciprocal Sequential Recommendation (2023) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling 48 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 17 | Jiuqiang Li 0002 | 43 | 3 | 70 Disentangled Contrastive Bundle Recommendation with Conditional Diffusion (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 39 Graph Diffusive Self-Supervised Learning for Social Recommendation (2024) Social and Group Recommendation |
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| 18 | Yongjing Hao | 43 | 3 | 63 Meta-Optimized Joint Generative and Contrastive Learning for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 46 Tell Me Where to Go Next: Improving POI Recommendation via Conversation (2021) Conversational Recommendation Systems |
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| 20 | Yang Song 0008 | 42 | 3 | 47 Mixed Attention Network for Cross-domain Sequential Recommendation (2024) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 46 Understanding and Modeling Passive-Negative Feedback for Short-video Sequential Recommendation (2023) Multi-Behavior Recommendation |
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| 21 | Bo Chen 0023 | 42 | 3 | 48 ReLLa: Retrieval-enhanced Large Language Models for Lifelong Sequential Behavior Comprehension in Recommendation (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 47 Full-Stack Optimized Large Language Models for Lifelong Sequential Behavior Comprehension in Recommendation (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 22 | Yongxin Ni | 42 | 3 | 45 Global and Personalized Graphs for Heterogeneous Sequential Recommendation by Learning Behavior Transitions and User Intentions (2022) Sequential and Session-Based Graph Recommendation 45 Bridging NIP and MLM: A Unified Meta-Learning Framework for Sequential Recommendation (2026) Meta-Learning for Cold-Start Recommendation |
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| 23 | Hao Liu 0078 | 42 | 3 | 48 WeaveRec: An LLM-Based Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation Framework with Model Merging (2026) Efficiency and Deployment 46 Mitigating Distribution Shifts in Sequential Recommendation: An Invariance Perspective (2025) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 24 | Chen Wang 0052 | 41 | 3 | 46 Pre-Training with Transferable Attention for Addressing Market Shifts in Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation (2024) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation 46 Confidence-Aware Fine-Tuning of Sequential Recommendation Systems Via Conformal Prediction (2025) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 25 | Jiangxia Cao | 41 | 3 | 72 From Agnostic to Specific: Latent Preference Diffusion for Multi-Behavior Sequential Recommendation (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 47 Contrastive Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation (2022) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation |
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| 26 | Wei Guo 0006 | 41 | 3 | 48 Killing Two Birds with One Stone: Unifying Retrieval and Ranking with a Single Generative Recommendation Model (2025) Generative Retrieval and Ranking 47 Dataset Regeneration for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Recommendation Systems and Evaluation |
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| 27 | Shijie Wang 0002 | 41 | 3 | 100 Continuous-time Discrete-space Diffusion Model for Recommendation (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 65 Score-Based Generative Diffusion Models for Social Recommendations (2025) Social Media and User Modelling |
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| 28 | Yang Zhang 0072 | 41 | 3 | 51 IGD: Token Decisiveness Modeling via Information Gain in LLMs for Personalized Recommendation (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 51 Decoding Matters: Addressing Amplification Bias and Homogeneity Issue in Recommendations for Large Language Models (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 30 | Riwei Lai | 41 | 3 | 48 Proxy-Aware Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation (2023) Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation 47 Proxy-enhanced cross-domain sequential recommendation (2025) Cross-Domain and Cross-Market Sequential Recommendation |
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| 31 | Xiao Zhang 0034 | 41 | 3 | 50 MoRE: A Mixture of Reflectors Framework for Large Language Model-Based Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 49 Test-Time Alignment with State Space Model for Tracking User Interest Shifts in Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 32 | Qiang Luo 0004 | 41 | 3 | 56 DiffGRM: Diffusion-based Generative Recommendation Model (2026) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 49 FIM: Frequency-Aware Multi-View Interest Modeling for Local-Life Service Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 33 | Xialong Liu assigned | 41 | 3 | 71 S-Diff: An Anisotropic Diffusion Model for Collaborative Filtering in Spectral Domain (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders 63 Expert-Guided Diffusion Planner for Auto-Bidding (2025) Advertising and Auction Mechanisms |