diff --git a/revision.c b/revision.c
index 0c95edef59..693ee491b3 100644
--- a/revision.c
+++ b/revision.c
@@ -1904,8 +1904,13 @@ static int add_parents_only(struct rev_info *revs, const char *arg_, int flags,
 		return 0;
 	while (1) {
 		it = get_reference(revs, arg, &oid, 0);
-		if (!it && revs->ignore_missing)
-			return 0;
+		if (!it) {
+			if (revs->ignore_missing)
+				return 0;
+			if (revs->do_not_die_on_missing_objects)
+				return 0;
+			return -1;
+		}
 		if (it->type != OBJ_TAG)
 			break;
 		if (!((struct tag*)it)->tagged)
diff --git a/t/t0410-partial-clone.sh b/t/t0410-partial-clone.sh
index dff442da20..cc070019be 100755
--- a/t/t0410-partial-clone.sh
+++ b/t/t0410-partial-clone.sh
@@ -489,6 +489,24 @@ test_expect_success 'rev-list dies for missing objects on cmd line' '
 	done
 '
 
+test_expect_success '--exclude-promisor-objects with ^@ on missing object' '
+	rm -rf repo &&
+	test_create_repo repo &&
+	test_commit -C repo foo &&
+	test_commit -C repo bar &&
+
+	COMMIT=$(git -C repo rev-parse foo) &&
+	promise_and_delete "$COMMIT" &&
+
+	git -C repo config core.repositoryformatversion 1 &&
+	git -C repo config extensions.partialclone "arbitrary string" &&
+
+	# Ensure that "$COMMIT^@" is handled gracefully even though the
+	# actual commits are missing.
+	git -C repo rev-list --exclude-promisor-objects "$COMMIT^@" >out &&
+	test_must_be_empty out
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'single promisor remote can be re-initialized gracefully' '
 	# ensure one promisor is in the promisors list
 	rm -rf repo &&