Clarify model reuse and switching output

unsloth_cli/commands/start.py

@@ -634,8 +634,12 @@ def _load_model_with_progress(
 
     threading.Thread(target = _load, name = "unsloth-model-load", daemon = True).start()
     progress = _ModelDownloadProgress(base, key, model, load.gguf_variant)
+    loading_announced = False
     try:
         while not done.wait(_DOWNLOAD_POLL_INTERVAL_S):
+            if not loading_announced:
+                typer.echo(f"Loading model: {_display_model_spec(model, load.gguf_variant)}")
+                loading_announced = True
             progress.poll()
         ok, value = result[0]
         if not ok:
@@ -1102,6 +1106,7 @@ def _resolve_model(
     load: LoadOptions = LoadOptions(),
 ) -> dict:
     models = _loaded_models(base, key)
+    load_requested = False
     # Only casefold-match ids against a loopback Unsloth, where _is_hub_model_id's
     # local existence probe can actually reject a server-side path; see the note there.
     allow_casefold = is_loopback_url(base)
@@ -1131,6 +1136,7 @@ def _resolve_model(
         )
     )
     if requested and match is None:
+        load_requested = True
         active = next((m for m in models if m.get("loaded") is not False), None)
         active_id = active.get("id") if active else None
         if active_id and not _model_id_matches(
@@ -1138,11 +1144,8 @@ def _resolve_model(
             requested,
             allow_casefold = allow_casefold,
         ):
-            typer.echo(
-                f"Switching the Unsloth server from {active_id} to {requested}. "
-                "This unloads the current model for every attached session."
-            )
-        typer.echo(f"Loading model: {_display_model_spec(requested, load.gguf_variant)}")
+            typer.echo(f"Switching the Unsloth server from {active_id} to {requested}.")
+            typer.echo("This unloads the current model for every attached session.")
         # Mirror `unsloth run`'s load knobs; keep the default payload as just
         # model_path so a bare `--model` load is unchanged.
         payload = {"model_path": requested}
@@ -1155,6 +1158,8 @@ def _resolve_model(
         if load.tensor_parallel:
             payload["tensor_parallel"] = True
         loaded = _load_model_with_progress(base, key, requested, load, payload)
+        if loaded.get("status") == "already_loaded":
+            typer.echo(f"Reusing loaded model: {_display_model_spec(requested, load.gguf_variant)}")
         # Unsloth registers the model under a canonical id (resolved identifier,
         # casing) that /v1/models echoes but which may differ from the path we
         # passed; match on the id the load reports so we don't silently fall
@@ -1174,6 +1179,8 @@ def _resolve_model(
             None,
         )
     if match is not None:
+        if requested and not load_requested:
+            typer.echo(f"Reusing loaded model: {_display_model_spec(requested, load.gguf_variant)}")
         return match
     if requested:
         # We asked Unsloth to load it and it didn't surface in /v1/models; don't

unsloth_cli/tests/test_start.py

@@ -640,8 +640,13 @@ def fake_studio(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
         if url.endswith("/api/auth/api-keys"):
             return {"key": "sk-unsloth-feedfacefeedface"}
         if url.endswith("/api/inference/load"):
+            already_loaded = state["models"][0]["id"] == payload["model_path"]
             state["models"] = [{"id": payload["model_path"], "context_length": 4096}]
-            return {}
+            return {
+                "status": "already_loaded" if already_loaded else "loaded",
+                "model": payload["model_path"],
+                "display_name": payload["model_path"],
+            }
         raise AssertionError(f"unexpected request: {method} {url}")
 
     monkeypatch.setattr(start, "find_studio_server", lambda: BASE)
@@ -864,7 +869,6 @@ def test_resolve_model_matches_loaded_canonical_case_after_load(monkeypatch, cap
     assert entry["id"] == "unsloth/gemma-4-E2B-it-GGUF"
     assert any(c[1].endswith("/api/inference/load") for c in calls)
     output = capsys.readouterr().out
-    assert "Loading model: unsloth/gemma-4-e2b-it-gguf:UD-Q4_K_XL\n" in output
     assert "please wait" not in output
 
 
@@ -1236,11 +1240,11 @@ def test_connect_model_flag_loads_on_server(fake_studio):
     assert loads == [
         ("POST", f"{BASE}/api/inference/load", {"model_path": "unsloth/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B"})
     ]
-    assert (
-        f"Switching the Unsloth server from {MODEL['id']} to unsloth/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B"
-        in result.output
+    assert result.output.index(
+        f"Switching the Unsloth server from {MODEL['id']} to unsloth/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.\n"
+    ) < result.output.index(
+        "This unloads the current model for every attached session.\n"
     )
-    assert "unloads the current model for every attached session" in result.output
     _assert_env_set(result.output, "ANTHROPIC_MODEL", "unsloth/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B")
 
 
@@ -1331,6 +1335,7 @@ def test_connect_model_bare_id_matches_loaded_without_reload(fake_studio):
     assert result.exit_code == 0, result.output
     loads = [c for c in fake_studio if c[1].endswith("/api/inference/load")]
     assert loads == []
+    assert f"Reusing loaded model: {MODEL['id']}\n" in result.output
     _assert_env_set(result.output, "ANTHROPIC_MODEL", MODEL["id"])
 
 
@@ -1352,6 +1357,7 @@ def test_connect_model_variant_suffix_defers_to_server_dedup(fake_studio):
             {"model_path": MODEL["id"], "gguf_variant": "UD-Q4_K_XL"},
         )
     ]
+    assert f"Reusing loaded model: {MODEL['id']}:UD-Q4_K_XL\n" in result.output
     _assert_env_set(result.output, "ANTHROPIC_MODEL", MODEL["id"])