fix(cli): hide shortcuts hint while model is thinking or the user has typed a prompt + add debounce to avoid flicker

[jacob314]

Summary

New behavior in alternate buffer mode:
https://screencast.googleplex.com/cast/NjYzMDg0OTEwNDU3NjUxMnw2MGQyYjgyNC1kMg

Demo of undesired bounce when not in alternate buffer mode:
https://screencast.googleplex.com/cast/NjczNjYzMzg4MDY0MTUzNnwxYjgwYWQxOS0zNQ

To repro:
Verify the hint now properly goes away when the model is thinking and goes away when the input prompt is not empty.
Verify that there is no flicker of the hint showing up when you press enter when the input prompt is small.
Fixes #19386

[gemini-cli]

Hi @jacob314, thank you so much for your contribution to Gemini CLI! We really appreciate the time and effort you've put into this.

We're making some updates to our contribution process to improve how we track and review changes. Please take a moment to review our recent discussion post: Improving Our Contribution Process & Introducing New Guidelines.

Key Update: Starting January 26, 2026, the Gemini CLI project will require all pull requests to be associated with an existing issue. Any pull requests not linked to an issue by that date will be automatically closed.

Thank you for your understanding and for being a part of our community!

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello @jacob314, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request enhances the user experience of the CLI composer by intelligently managing the visibility of the shortcuts hint. By hiding the hint when the model is processing or when the input buffer contains text, and by introducing a debounce for its appearance, the UI becomes less distracting and more responsive to user interaction, leading to a cleaner and more intuitive interface.

Highlights

• Improved UI Clarity: The shortcuts hint is now hidden when the AI model is actively responding or when the user has already started typing, reducing visual clutter.
• Debounced Hint Display: A 200ms debounce has been added to the display of the shortcuts hint, preventing it from flickering or appearing prematurely.
• Enhanced Test Coverage: New tests were introduced to ensure the shortcuts hint correctly hides under the specified conditions.

Changelog

• packages/cli/src/ui/components/Composer.test.tsx
  • Added tests to verify the shortcuts hint is hidden when the model is responding.
  • Added tests to verify the shortcuts hint is hidden when text is present in the input buffer.
• packages/cli/src/ui/components/Composer.tsx
  • Implemented logic to determine if the model is idle and the buffer is empty.
  • Introduced a useState and useEffect hook to debounce the showShortcutsHint flag by 200ms.
  • Updated the showShortcutsHint condition to incorporate the new debounced state.
• packages/cli/src/ui/components/snapshots/Composer.test.tsx.snap
  • Updated the snapshot to reflect the removal of the ShortcutsHint during streaming.

Activity

• No specific activity (comments, reviews, etc.) was provided in the pull request description.

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request introduces logic to hide the shortcuts hint while the model is responding or when the input buffer is not empty, and adds a debounce to the hint's appearance. The changes look good and are supported by new tests.

I've found a potential UI flicker bug in the implementation of the debounce logic and provided a suggestion to fix it. This change will also make the hint's appearance more consistent.

[gemini-code-assist]

Initializing showShortcutsHintDebounced with canShowShortcutsHint can lead to a UI flicker.

Here's the scenario:

1. On initial render, if canShowShortcutsHint is true, the state is initialized to true and the hint is shown immediately.
2. If the user then performs an action that makes canShowShortcutsHint become false (like typing a character), the component re-renders.
3. During this re-render, showShortcutsHintDebounced is still true from the previous state, so the hint is incorrectly rendered for one frame.
4. The useEffect then runs and sets the state to false, triggering another re-render to hide the hint.

This causes a flicker.

By initializing the state to false, you ensure the debounce logic is applied consistently, even on the initial render, and it fixes this flicker bug. This will introduce a 200ms delay before the hint appears for the first time, which is a reasonable trade-off for a smoother user experience.

Suggested change

	const [showShortcutsHintDebounced, setShowShortcutsHintDebounced] =
	useState(canShowShortcutsHint);
	const [showShortcutsHintDebounced, setShowShortcutsHintDebounced] =
	useState(false);

[jacob314]

initial render tends to be with an empty prompt so would create more flicker if we did this.

[github-actions]

Size Change: +610 B (0%)

Total Size: 25.7 MB

ℹ️ View Unchanged

Filename	Size	Change
./bundle/gemini.js	25.2 MB	+610 B (0%)
./bundle/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli-devtools/dist/client/main.js	221 kB	0 B
./bundle/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli-devtools/dist/src/_client-assets.js	227 kB	0 B
./bundle/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli-devtools/dist/src/index.js	11.5 kB	0 B
./bundle/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli-devtools/dist/src/types.js	132 B	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-open.sb	890 B	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-proxied.sb	1.31 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-open.sb	3.36 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-proxied.sb	3.56 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-strict-open.sb	4.82 kB	0 B
./bundle/sandbox-macos-strict-proxied.sb	5.02 kB	0 B

_{compressed-size-action}

[jacob314]

I've pushed up some commits locally to address some strict testing rules. Let me know if you would like me to push my changes up directly.