diff --git a/merge-ort.c b/merge-ort.c
index 00923ce3cd749b..544be9e466c9b5 100644
--- a/merge-ort.c
+++ b/merge-ort.c
@@ -2953,32 +2953,6 @@ static int process_renames(struct merge_options *opt,
 		if (!oldinfo || oldinfo->merged.clean)
 			continue;
 
-		/*
-		 * Rename caching from a previous commit might give us an
-		 * irrelevant rename for the current commit.
-		 *
-		 * Imagine:
-		 *     foo/A -> bar/A
-		 * was a cached rename for the upstream side from the
-		 * previous commit (without the directories being renamed),
-		 * but the next commit being replayed
-		 *     * does NOT add or delete files
-		 *     * does NOT have directory renames
-		 *     * does NOT modify any files under bar/
-		 *     * does NOT modify foo/A
-		 *     * DOES modify other files under foo/ (otherwise the
-		 *       !oldinfo check above would have already exited for
-		 *       us)
-		 * In such a case, our trivial directory resolution will
-		 * have already merged bar/, and our attempt to process
-		 * the cached
-		 *     foo/A -> bar/A
-		 * would be counterproductive, and lack the necessary
-		 * information anyway.  Skip such renames.
-		 */
-		if (!newinfo)
-			continue;
-
 		/*
 		 * diff_filepairs have copies of pathnames, thus we have to
 		 * use standard 'strcmp()' (negated) instead of '=='.
@@ -3329,6 +3303,28 @@ static void use_cached_pairs(struct merge_options *opt,
 		if (!new_name)
 			new_name = old_name;
 
+		/*
+		 * If this is a rename and the target path is either
+		 * absent from opt->priv->paths (because a parent
+		 * directory was trivially resolved) or already cleanly
+		 * resolved (e.g. all three sides agree on its content),
+		 * the cached rename is irrelevant for this commit.
+		 * Skip it here rather than in process_renames() to
+		 * preserve VERIFY_CI(newinfo)'s ability to catch bugs
+		 * for non-cached renames (see 979ee83e8a90 (merge-ort:
+		 * fix corner case recursive submodule/directory conflict
+		 * handling, 2025-12-29) for an example of a bug that
+		 * assertion caught).  The rename remains in cached_pairs
+		 * for use in subsequent commits.
+		 */
+		if (entry->value) {
+			struct merged_info *mi;
+
+			mi = strmap_get(&opt->priv->paths, new_name);
+			if (!mi || mi->clean)
+				continue;
+		}
+
 		/*
 		 * cached_pairs has *copies* of old_name and new_name,
 		 * because it has to persist across merges.  Since
diff --git a/t/t6429-merge-sequence-rename-caching.sh b/t/t6429-merge-sequence-rename-caching.sh
index 15dd2d94b75f0a..56ee9689898276 100755
--- a/t/t6429-merge-sequence-rename-caching.sh
+++ b/t/t6429-merge-sequence-rename-caching.sh
@@ -846,4 +846,64 @@ test_expect_success 'rename a file, use it on first pick, but irrelevant on seco
 	)
 '
 
+#
+# In the following testcase:
+#   Base:     subdir/file_1
+#   Upstream: file_1         (renamed from subdir/file)
+#   Topic_1:  subdir/file_2  (modified subdir/file)
+#   Topic_2:  subdir/file_2, file_2  (added another "file" with same contents)
+#   Topic_3:  file_2         (deleted subdir/file)
+#
+#
+# This testcase presents no problems for git traditionally, but the fact that
+#    subdir/file -> file
+# gets cached after the first pick presents a problem for the third commit
+# to be replayed, because file has contents file_2 on all three sides and
+# is thus trivially resolved early.  The point of renames is to allow us to
+# three-way merge contents across multiple filenames, but if the target is
+# already resolved, we risk throwing an assertion.  Verify that the code
+# correctly drops the irrelevant rename in order to avoid hitting that
+# assertion.
+#
+test_expect_success 'cached rename does not assert on trivially clean target' '
+	git init cached-rename-trivially-clean-target &&
+	(
+		cd cached-rename-trivially-clean-target &&
+
+		mkdir subdir &&
+		printf "%s\n" 1 2 3 >subdir/file &&
+		git add subdir/file &&
+		git commit -m orig &&
+
+		git branch upstream &&
+		git branch topic &&
+
+		git switch upstream &&
+		git mv subdir/file file &&
+		git commit -m "rename subdir/file to file" &&
+
+		git switch topic &&
+
+		echo 4 >>subdir/file &&
+		git add subdir/file &&
+		git commit -m "modify subdir/file" &&
+
+		cp subdir/file file &&
+		git add file &&
+		git commit -m "copy subdir/file to file" &&
+
+		git rm subdir/file &&
+		git commit -m "delete subdir/file" &&
+
+		git switch upstream &&
+		git replay --onto HEAD upstream..topic &&
+		git checkout topic &&
+
+		git ls-files >tracked-files &&
+		test_line_count = 1 tracked-files &&
+		printf "%s\n" 1 2 3 4 >expect &&
+		test_cmp expect file
+	)
+'
+
 test_done