Papers › MetaBox-v2: A Unified Benchmark Platform for Meta-Black-Box Optimization

MetaBox-v2: A Unified Benchmark Platform for Meta-Black-Box Optimization

23 May 2025arXiv:2505.17745archive 2025-07-28

Zeyuan Ma, Yue-Jiao Gong, Hongshu Guo, Wenjie Qiu, Sijie Ma, Hongqiao Lian, Jiajun Zhan, Kaixu Chen, Chen Wang, Zhiyang Huang, Zechuan Huang, Guojun Peng, Ran Cheng, Yining Ma

Meta-Black-Box Optimization (MetaBBO) streamlines the automation of optimization algorithm design through meta-learning. It typically employs a bi-level structure: the meta-level policy undergoes meta-training to reduce the manual effort required in developing algorithms for low-level optimization tasks. The original MetaBox (2023) provided the first open-source framework for reinforcement learning-based single-objective MetaBBO. However, its relatively narrow scope no longer keep pace with the swift advancement in this field. In this paper, we introduce MetaBox-v2 (https://github.com/MetaEvo/MetaBox) as a milestone upgrade with four novel features: 1) a unified architecture supporting RL, evolutionary, and gradient-based approaches, by which we reproduce 23 up-to-date baselines; 2) efficient parallelization schemes, which reduce the training/testing time by 10-40x; 3) a comprehensive benchmark suite of 18 synthetic/realistic tasks (1900+ instances) spanning single-objective, multi-objective, multi-model, and multi-task optimization scenarios; 4) plentiful and extensible interfaces for custom analysis/visualization and integrating to external optimization tools/benchmarks. To show the utility of MetaBox-v2, we carry out a systematic case study that evaluates the built-in baselines in terms of the optimization performance, generalization ability and learning efficiency. Valuable insights are concluded from thorough and detailed analysis for practitioners and those new to the field.

PaperPDFCodeCode Syntology ran

In Syntology Open this paper in Syntology's Atlas, the map of the papers in Syntology's graph and their citations.

For agents, Syntology's MCP tool lists every function and class Syntology harvested from this paper and whether it ran (how to connect): get_harvested_code_for_paper(arxiv_id="2505.17745")

Code

Syntology Ran 1 of 9 code samples harvested from 2 repositories linked to this paper; 8 have no recorded run. Of those that ran: 1 ran · our draft was wrong.

By repository: official repository: 1 sample from 1 repository, 1 ran; community (archive-listed): 8 samples from 1 repository, 0 ran. The run record, sample by sample. “Ran” means executed on a synthesized input, not that the code is correct or reproduces the paper.

metaevo/metabox officialmentioned in papermentioned on GitHubpytorchBSD-3-Clause report
GMC-DRL/MetaBox mentioned on GitHubpytorchBSD-3-Clause report

Repository list and official/mentioned flags are the archive's, frozen 2025-07-28. Reachability, where shown, is from one Syntology probe window (2026-09-16 to 2026-09-18); repositories not probed show nothing. GitHub stars are not tracked.

Code Syntology ran Syntology

9 samples harvested; 1 ran; 0 honoured the contract we drafted; 8 have no recorded run. Read from Syntology's graph 2026-09-24; that is when this build read the record, not when the samples ran.

1ran · our draft was wrong
8unverified

Licence: 0 of the 9 samples are pointer only, meaning Syntology does not serve that copy's text. This page shows no code text for any sample; each one links to its file in the repository.

Harvested from 2 repositories linked to this paper, official or community; each sample names its own and says which. “Ran” means the sample executed on a synthesized input. It does not mean the output is correct, and nothing here reproduces the paper's results. “Honoured” and “violated” refer to a contract Syntology drafted from the code itself; “our draft was wrong” and “fixture could not drive it” are failures of Syntology's instrument, not of the code.

Each sample ends with its code_sha256, Syntology's identity for that exact code. An agent fetches the stored sample with Syntology's MCP tool get_code(code_sha256="…") (how to connect); click an identity to copy that call.

Repository labels, per sample. official repository: The archive marks this repository official for the paper. named in the paper: The archive records that the paper mentions this repository; it is not marked official. community (archive-listed): In the archive's code links for this paper, not marked official and not recorded as mentioned in the paper. found in paper text by Syntology: Syntology found this repository in the paper's own text; whether it is the authors' implementation is not asserted. community: Not in the archive's code links for this paper; a community repository Syntology harvested. Samples from a repository marked official are listed first. Licence labels name the repository's licence as recorded at harvest. “Pointer only” means Syntology does not serve that copy's text, for one of four reasons: no licence file was found; the licence was not identified; the licence is recorded as permissive but that copy's record is not marked cleared; or the licence is outside the permissive list Syntology serves text under (MIT, Apache-2.0, BSD and similar). Some licences outside that list permit redistribution, such as WTFPL, and GPL-3.0 under its conditions; they are simply not on the list. Hover a licence label for the reason. File links open the file on GitHub at the default branch, which may have changed since the harvest.

linkcode_resolve MetaEvo/MetaBox/docs/source/conf.py official repository ran · our draft was wrong BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · daf038787b61bb0c · report
Config GMC-DRL/MetaBox/src/config.py community (archive-listed) unverified BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · 9f290edd06105751 · report
cal_t0 GMC-DRL/MetaBox/src/tester.py community (archive-listed) unverified BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · 51243b02b43cb569 · report
cal_t1 GMC-DRL/MetaBox/src/tester.py community (archive-listed) unverified BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · 36d76d20ab7a9762 · report
data_wrapper_cost GMC-DRL/MetaBox/src/logger.py community (archive-listed) unverified BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · f1930632d23bcc09 · report
get_config GMC-DRL/MetaBox/src/config.py community (archive-listed) unverified BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · 2d7f6913346d4407 · report
init_config GMC-DRL/MetaBox/src/config.py community (archive-listed) unverified BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · 4bce2c6fb57b5789 · report
record_data GMC-DRL/MetaBox/src/tester.py community (archive-listed) unverified BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · 1b351a84d5397dd3 · report
to_label GMC-DRL/MetaBox/src/logger.py community (archive-listed) unverified BSD-3-Clause (permissive) · e2b95e15487396d1 · report

Tasks

Meta-Learning

Results from the paper archive 2025-07-28

No leaderboard rows for this paper in the archive.

Report a problem or propose a change · a person checks every report against the paper or source before anything changes; decisions are listed on /corrections