diff --git a/src/libfetchers/fetch-to-store.cc b/src/libfetchers/fetch-to-store.cc
index d3e416c7f..ae1cc04e6 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/fetch-to-store.cc
+++ b/src/libfetchers/fetch-to-store.cc
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ std::pair<StorePath, Hash> fetchToStore2(
             auto hash = Hash::parseSRI(fetchers::getStrAttr(*res, "hash"));
             auto storePath = store.makeFixedOutputPathFromCA(name,
                 ContentAddressWithReferences::fromParts(method, hash, {}));
-            if (mode == FetchMode::DryRun || store.isValidPath(storePath)) {
+            if (mode == FetchMode::DryRun || store.maybeQueryPathInfo(storePath)) {
                 debug("source path '%s' cache hit in '%s' (hash '%s')", path, store.printStorePath(storePath), hash.to_string(HashFormat::SRI, true));
                 return {storePath, hash};
             }
diff --git a/src/libstore/include/nix/store/store-api.hh b/src/libstore/include/nix/store/store-api.hh
index e0a3e67d1..09b0d15b4 100644
--- a/src/libstore/include/nix/store/store-api.hh
+++ b/src/libstore/include/nix/store/store-api.hh
@@ -269,7 +269,9 @@ public:
     StorePath followLinksToStorePath(std::string_view path) const;
 
     /**
-     * Check whether a path is valid.
+     * Check whether a path is valid. NOTE: this function does not
+     * generally cache whether a path is valid. You may want to use
+     * `maybeQueryPathInfo()`, which does cache.
      */
     bool isValidPath(const StorePath & path);
 
@@ -308,10 +310,17 @@ public:
 
     /**
      * Query information about a valid path. It is permitted to omit
-     * the name part of the store path.
+     * the name part of the store path. Throws an exception if the
+     * path is not valid.
      */
     ref<const ValidPathInfo> queryPathInfo(const StorePath & path);
 
+    /**
+     * Like `queryPathInfo()`, but returns `nullptr` if the path is
+     * not valid.
+     */
+    std::shared_ptr<const ValidPathInfo> maybeQueryPathInfo(const StorePath & path);
+
     /**
      * Asynchronous version of queryPathInfo().
      */
diff --git a/src/libstore/local-fs-store.cc b/src/libstore/local-fs-store.cc
index add3b04d2..620819234 100644
--- a/src/libstore/local-fs-store.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/local-fs-store.cc
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ struct LocalStoreAccessor : PosixSourceAccessor
     void requireStoreObject(const CanonPath & path)
     {
         auto [storePath, rest] = store->toStorePath(store->storeDir + path.abs());
-        if (requireValidPath && !store->isValidPath(storePath))
+        if (requireValidPath && !store->maybeQueryPathInfo(storePath))
             throw InvalidPath("path '%1%' is not a valid store path", store->printStorePath(storePath));
     }
 
diff --git a/src/libstore/store-api.cc b/src/libstore/store-api.cc
index 39de6808d..70f463059 100644
--- a/src/libstore/store-api.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/store-api.cc
@@ -633,6 +633,25 @@ ref<const ValidPathInfo> Store::queryPathInfo(const StorePath & storePath)
 }
 
 
+std::shared_ptr<const ValidPathInfo> Store::maybeQueryPathInfo(const StorePath & storePath)
+{
+    std::promise<std::shared_ptr<const ValidPathInfo>> promise;
+
+    queryPathInfo(storePath,
+        {[&](std::future<ref<const ValidPathInfo>> result) {
+            try {
+                promise.set_value(result.get());
+            } catch (InvalidPath &) {
+                promise.set_value(nullptr);
+            } catch (...) {
+                promise.set_exception(std::current_exception());
+            }
+        }});
+
+    return promise.get_future().get();
+}
+
+
 static bool goodStorePath(const StorePath & expected, const StorePath & actual)
 {
     return