diff --git a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/useLoadingIndicator.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/useLoadingIndicator.test.ts
index 734a92606dd..77e381b873d 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/useLoadingIndicator.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/useLoadingIndicator.test.ts
@@ -21,9 +21,11 @@ describe('useLoadingIndicator', () => {
   afterEach(() => {
     vi.useRealTimers(); // Restore real timers after each test
     act(() => vi.runOnlyPendingTimers);
+    vi.restoreAllMocks();
   });
 
   it('should initialize with default values when Idle', () => {
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
     const { result } = renderHook(() =>
       useLoadingIndicator(StreamingState.Idle),
     );
@@ -34,6 +36,7 @@ describe('useLoadingIndicator', () => {
   });
 
   it('should reflect values when Responding', async () => {
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
     const { result } = renderHook(() =>
       useLoadingIndicator(StreamingState.Responding),
     );
@@ -82,6 +85,7 @@ describe('useLoadingIndicator', () => {
   });
 
   it('should reset elapsedTime and use a witty phrase when transitioning from WaitingForConfirmation to Responding', async () => {
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
     const { result, rerender } = renderHook(
       ({ streamingState }) => useLoadingIndicator(streamingState),
       { initialProps: { streamingState: StreamingState.Responding } },
@@ -115,6 +119,7 @@ describe('useLoadingIndicator', () => {
   });
 
   it('should reset timer and phrase when streamingState changes from Responding to Idle', async () => {
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
     const { result, rerender } = renderHook(
       ({ streamingState }) => useLoadingIndicator(streamingState),
       { initialProps: { streamingState: StreamingState.Responding } },
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/usePhraseCycler.test.ts b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/usePhraseCycler.test.ts
index 88eed68c472..1ed99b05df1 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/usePhraseCycler.test.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/usePhraseCycler.test.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ describe('usePhraseCycler', () => {
   });
 
   it('should initialize with a witty phrase when not active and not waiting', () => {
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
     const { result } = renderHook(() => usePhraseCycler(false, false));
     expect(WITTY_LOADING_PHRASES).toContain(result.current);
   });
@@ -45,6 +46,7 @@ describe('usePhraseCycler', () => {
   });
 
   it('should cycle through witty phrases when isActive is true and not waiting', () => {
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
     const { result } = renderHook(() => usePhraseCycler(true, false));
     // Initial phrase should be one of the witty phrases
     expect(WITTY_LOADING_PHRASES).toContain(result.current);
@@ -70,12 +72,19 @@ describe('usePhraseCycler', () => {
     }
 
     // Mock Math.random to make the test deterministic.
-    let callCount = 0;
+    const mockRandomValues = [
+      0.5, // -> witty
+      0, // -> index 0
+      0.5, // -> witty
+      1 / WITTY_LOADING_PHRASES.length, // -> index 1
+      0.5, // -> witty
+      0, // -> index 0
+    ];
+    let randomCallCount = 0;
     vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => {
-      // Cycle through 0, 1, 0, 1, ...
-      const val = callCount % 2;
-      callCount++;
-      return val / WITTY_LOADING_PHRASES.length;
+      const val = mockRandomValues[randomCallCount % mockRandomValues.length];
+      randomCallCount++;
+      return val;
     });
 
     const { result, rerender } = renderHook(
@@ -120,7 +129,7 @@ describe('usePhraseCycler', () => {
   it('should use custom phrases when provided', () => {
     const customPhrases = ['Custom Phrase 1', 'Custom Phrase 2'];
     let callCount = 0;
-    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => {
+    const randomMock = vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => {
       const val = callCount % 2;
       callCount++;
       return val / customPhrases.length;
@@ -146,12 +155,17 @@ describe('usePhraseCycler', () => {
 
     expect(result.current).toBe(customPhrases[1]);
 
+    // Test fallback to default phrases.
+    randomMock.mockRestore();
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
+
     rerender({ isActive: true, isWaiting: false, customPhrases: undefined });
 
     expect(WITTY_LOADING_PHRASES).toContain(result.current);
   });
 
   it('should fall back to witty phrases if custom phrases are an empty array', () => {
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
     const { result } = renderHook(
       ({ isActive, isWaiting, customPhrases: phrases }) =>
         usePhraseCycler(isActive, isWaiting, phrases),
@@ -168,6 +182,7 @@ describe('usePhraseCycler', () => {
   });
 
   it('should reset to a witty phrase when transitioning from waiting to active', () => {
+    vi.spyOn(Math, 'random').mockImplementation(() => 0.5); // Always witty
     const { result, rerender } = renderHook(
       ({ isActive, isWaiting }) => usePhraseCycler(isActive, isWaiting),
       { initialProps: { isActive: true, isWaiting: false } },
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/usePhraseCycler.ts b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/usePhraseCycler.ts
index d872466bbf3..f031b4cea70 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/usePhraseCycler.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/ui/hooks/usePhraseCycler.ts
@@ -139,6 +139,148 @@ export const WITTY_LOADING_PHRASES = [
   'Releasing the HypnoDrones...',
 ];
 
+export const INFORMATIVE_TIPS = [
+  //Settings tips start here
+  'Set your preferred editor for opening files (/settings)...',
+  'Toggle Vim mode for a modal editing experience (/settings)...',
+  'Disable automatic updates if you prefer manual control (/settings)...',
+  'Turn off nagging update notifications (settings.json)...',
+  'Enable checkpointing to recover your session after a crash (settings.json)...',
+  'Change CLI output format to JSON for scripting (/settings)...',
+  'Personalize your CLI with a new color theme (/settings)...',
+  'Create and use your own custom themes (settings.json)...',
+  'Hide window title for a more minimal UI (/settings)...',
+  "Don't like these tips? You can hide them (/settings)...",
+  'Hide the startup banner for a cleaner launch (/settings)...',
+  'Reclaim vertical space by hiding the footer (/settings)...',
+  'Show memory usage for performance monitoring (/settings)...',
+  'Show citations to see where the model gets information (/settings)...',
+  'Disable loading phrases for a quieter experience (/settings)...',
+  'Add custom witty phrases to the loading screen (settings.json)...',
+  'Choose a specific Gemini model for conversations (/settings)...',
+  'Limit the number of turns in your session history (/settings)...',
+  'Automatically summarize large tool outputs to save tokens (settings.json)...',
+  'Control when chat history gets compressed based on token usage (settings.json)...',
+  'Define custom context file names, like CONTEXT.md (settings.json)...',
+  'Set max directories to scan for context files (/settings)...',
+  'Expand your workspace with additional directories (/directory)...',
+  'Control how /memory refresh loads context files (/settings)...',
+  'Toggle respect for .gitignore files in context (/settings)...',
+  'Toggle respect for .geminiignore files in context (/settings)...',
+  'Enable recursive file search for @-file completions (/settings)...',
+  'Run tools in a secure sandbox environment (settings.json)...',
+  'Use an interactive terminal for shell commands (/settings)...',
+  'Restrict available built-in tools (settings.json)...',
+  'Exclude specific tools from being used (settings.json)...',
+  'Bypass confirmation for trusted tools (settings.json)...',
+  'Use a custom command for tool discovery (settings.json)...',
+  'Define a custom command for calling discovered tools (settings.json)...',
+  'Define and manage connections to MCP servers (settings.json)...',
+  'Enable folder trust to enhance security (/settings)...',
+  'Change your authentication method (/settings)...',
+  'Enforce auth type for enterprise use (settings.json)...',
+  'Let Node.js auto-configure memory (settings.json)...',
+  'Customize the DNS resolution order (settings.json)...',
+  'Exclude env vars from the context (settings.json)...',
+  'Configure a custom command for filing bug reports (settings.json)...',
+  'Enable or disable telemetry collection (/settings)...',
+  'Send telemetry data to a local file or GCP (settings.json)...',
+  'Configure the OTLP endpoint for telemetry (settings.json)...',
+  'Choose whether to log prompt content (settings.json)...',
+  'Enable AI-powered prompt completion while typing (/settings)...',
+  'Enable debug logging of keystrokes to the console (/settings)...',
+  'Enable automatic session cleanup of old conversations (/settings)...',
+  'Show Gemini CLI status in the terminal window title (/settings)...',
+  'Use the entire width of the terminal for output (/settings)...',
+  'Enable screen reader mode for better accessibility (/settings)...',
+  'Skip the next speaker check for faster responses (/settings)...',
+  'Use ripgrep for faster file content search (/settings)...',
+  'Enable truncation of large tool outputs to save tokens (/settings)...',
+  'Set the character threshold for truncating tool outputs (/settings)...',
+  'Set the number of lines to keep when truncating outputs (/settings)...',
+  'Enable policy-based tool confirmation via message bus (/settings)...',
+  'Enable smart-edit tool for more precise editing (/settings)...',
+  'Enable write_todos_list tool to generate task lists (/settings)...',
+  'Enable model routing based on complexity (/settings)...',
+  'Enable experimental subagents for task delegation (/settings)...',
+  //Settings tips end here
+  // Keyboard shortcut tips start here
+  'Close dialogs and suggestions with Esc...',
+  'Cancel a request with Ctrl+C, or press twice to exit...',
+  'Exit the app with Ctrl+D on an empty line...',
+  'Clear your screen at any time with Ctrl+L...',
+  'Toggle the debug console display with Ctrl+O...',
+  'See full, untruncated responses with Ctrl+S...',
+  'Show or hide tool descriptions with Ctrl+T...',
+  'Toggle auto-approval (YOLO mode) for all tools with Ctrl+Y...',
+  'Toggle shell mode by typing ! in an empty prompt...',
+  'Insert a newline with a backslash (\\) followed by Enter...',
+  'Navigate your prompt history with the Up and Down arrows...',
+  'You can also use Ctrl+P (up) and Ctrl+N (down) for history...',
+  'Submit your prompt to Gemini with Enter...',
+  'Accept an autocomplete suggestion with Tab or Enter...',
+  'Move to the start of the line with Ctrl+A or Home...',
+  'Move to the end of the line with Ctrl+E or End...',
+  'Move one character left or right with Ctrl+B/F or the arrow keys...',
+  'Move one word left or right with Ctrl+Left/Right Arrow...',
+  'Delete the character to the left with Ctrl+H or Backspace...',
+  'Delete the character to the right with Ctrl+D or Delete...',
+  'Delete the word to the left of the cursor with Ctrl+W...',
+  'Delete the word to the right of the cursor with Ctrl+Delete...',
+  'Delete from the cursor to the start of the line with Ctrl+U...',
+  'Delete from the cursor to the end of the line with Ctrl+K...',
+  'Clear the entire input prompt with a double-press of Esc...',
+  'Paste from your clipboard with Ctrl+V...',
+  'Open the current prompt in an external editor with Ctrl+X...',
+  'In menus, move up/down with k/j or the arrow keys...',
+  'In menus, select an item by typing its number...',
+  "If you're using an IDE, see the context with Ctrl+G...",
+  // Keyboard shortcut tips end here
+  // Command tips start here
+  'Show version info with /about...',
+  'Change your authentication method with /auth...',
+  'File a bug report directly with /bug...',
+  'List your saved chat checkpoints with /chat list...',
+  'Save your current conversation with /chat save <tag>...',
+  'Resume a saved conversation with /chat resume <tag>...',
+  'Delete a conversation checkpoint with /chat delete <tag>...',
+  'Share your conversation to a file with /chat share <file>...',
+  'Clear the screen and history with /clear...',
+  'Save tokens by summarizing the context with /compress...',
+  'Copy the last response to your clipboard with /copy...',
+  'Open the full documentation in your browser with /docs...',
+  'Add directories to your workspace with /directory add <path>...',
+  'Show all directories in your workspace with /directory show...',
+  'Set your preferred external editor with /editor...',
+  'List all active extensions with /extensions list...',
+  'Update all or specific extensions with /extensions update...',
+  'Get help on commands with /help...',
+  'Manage IDE integration with /ide...',
+  'Create a project-specific GEMINI.md file with /init...',
+  'List configured MCP servers and tools with /mcp list...',
+  'Authenticate with an OAuth-enabled MCP server with /mcp auth...',
+  'Restart MCP servers with /mcp refresh...',
+  'See the current instructional context with /memory show...',
+  'Add content to the instructional memory with /memory add...',
+  'Reload instructional context from GEMINI.md files with /memory refresh...',
+  'List the paths of the GEMINI.md files in use with /memory list...',
+  'Display the privacy notice with /privacy...',
+  'Exit the CLI with /quit or /exit...',
+  'Check model-specific usage stats with /stats model...',
+  'Check tool-specific usage stats with /stats tools...',
+  "Change the CLI's color theme with /theme...",
+  'List all available tools with /tools...',
+  'View and edit settings with the /settings editor...',
+  'Toggle Vim keybindings on and off with /vim...',
+  'Set up GitHub Actions with /setup-github...',
+  'Configure terminal keybindings for multiline input with /terminal-setup...',
+  'Find relevant documentation with /find-docs...',
+  'Review a pull request with /oncall:pr-review...',
+  'Go back to main and clean up the branch with /github:cleanup-back-to-main...',
+  'Execute any shell command with !<command>...',
+  // Command tips end here
+];
+
 export const PHRASE_CHANGE_INTERVAL_MS = 15000;
 
 /**
@@ -173,16 +315,26 @@ export const usePhraseCycler = (
       if (phraseIntervalRef.current) {
         clearInterval(phraseIntervalRef.current);
       }
+
+      const setRandomPhrase = () => {
+        if (customPhrases && customPhrases.length > 0) {
+          const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * customPhrases.length);
+          setCurrentLoadingPhrase(customPhrases[randomIndex]);
+        } else {
+          // Roughly 1 in 6 chance to show a tip.
+          const showTip = Math.random() < 1 / 6;
+          const phraseList = showTip ? INFORMATIVE_TIPS : WITTY_LOADING_PHRASES;
+          const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * phraseList.length);
+          setCurrentLoadingPhrase(phraseList[randomIndex]);
+        }
+      };
+
       // Select an initial random phrase
-      const initialRandomIndex = Math.floor(
-        Math.random() * loadingPhrases.length,
-      );
-      setCurrentLoadingPhrase(loadingPhrases[initialRandomIndex]);
+      setRandomPhrase();
 
       phraseIntervalRef.current = setInterval(() => {
         // Select a new random phrase
-        const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * loadingPhrases.length);
-        setCurrentLoadingPhrase(loadingPhrases[randomIndex]);
+        setRandomPhrase();
       }, PHRASE_CHANGE_INTERVAL_MS);
     } else {
       // Idle or other states, clear the phrase interval
@@ -200,7 +352,7 @@ export const usePhraseCycler = (
         phraseIntervalRef.current = null;
       }
     };
-  }, [isActive, isWaiting, loadingPhrases]);
+  }, [isActive, isWaiting, customPhrases, loadingPhrases]);
 
   return currentLoadingPhrase;
 };