diff --git a/packages/core/src/runtime/compositionLoader.test.ts b/packages/core/src/runtime/compositionLoader.test.ts
index 3f066cce840..8881392c596 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/runtime/compositionLoader.test.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/runtime/compositionLoader.test.ts
@@ -262,6 +262,35 @@ describe("loadCompositions external hosts", () => {
     ).toBeNull();
   });
 
+  // `assets/theme.css` in a sub-composition loaded from compositions/assets/ in the preview and 404'd, while the render
+  // resolved it from the project root (rewriteAssetPath: a plain path is a sibling only if one exists).
+  it.each([
+    ["no sibling file: the project root", false, "assets/theme.css"],
+    ["a sibling file: beside the composition", true, "compositions/assets/theme.css"],
+  ])(
+    "a plain stylesheet path resolves as the render does, %s",
+    async (_case, sibling, expected) => {
+      appendExternalHost("compositions/scene.html", "scene");
+      const compositionHtml = `<template id="scene-template">
+      <div data-composition-id="scene"><link rel="stylesheet" href="assets/theme.css"><p>Styled</p></div>
+    </template>`;
+      const siblingUrl = new URL("compositions/assets/theme.css", document.baseURI).href;
+      vi.spyOn(globalThis, "fetch").mockImplementation(async (input) => {
+        const url = new URL(String(input instanceof Request ? input.url : input), document.baseURI)
+          .href;
+        if (url === siblingUrl) return new Response("", { status: sibling ? 200 : 404 });
+        return new Response(compositionHtml, { status: 200 });
+      });
+
+      await loadFixture();
+
+      const hrefs = [
+        ...document.head.querySelectorAll<HTMLLinkElement>('link[rel="stylesheet"]'),
+      ].map((link) => link.href);
+      expect(hrefs).toEqual([new URL(expected, document.baseURI).href]);
+    },
+  );
+
   it("does not inject stylesheet href variants that resolve to the composition document", async () => {
     appendExternalHost("https://example.com/compositions/scene.html", "scene");
 
diff --git a/packages/core/src/runtime/compositionLoader.ts b/packages/core/src/runtime/compositionLoader.ts
index 0f7814e0af0..0c2e08aaadc 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/runtime/compositionLoader.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/runtime/compositionLoader.ts
@@ -182,6 +182,24 @@ function rewriteSubCompositionAssetPaths(root: ParentNode, compositionUrl: URL |
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * A hoisted `<link>`'s URL, by the compiler's rule (`rewriteAssetPath` with its `assetExists` probe): a plain relative
+ * href is the file beside the composition when one is there, else the project root's (`assets/theme.css`). `../`
+ * hrefs are already absolute from `rewriteSubCompositionAssetPaths`.
+ */
+async function hoistedLinkHref(rawHref: string, compositionUrl: URL | null): Promise<string> {
+  if (!compositionUrl) return rawHref;
+  if (isNonRelativeRuntimeUrl(rawHref)) return new URL(rawHref, compositionUrl).href;
+  const sibling = new URL(rawHref, compositionUrl).href;
+  const root = new URL(rawHref, document.baseURI).href;
+  if (sibling === root) return root;
+  try {
+    return (await fetch(sibling, { method: "HEAD" })).ok ? sibling : root;
+  } catch {
+    return root;
+  }
+}
+
 function uniqueCompositionId(baseId: string, index: number): string {
   return `${baseId}__hf${index}`;
 }
@@ -487,7 +505,7 @@ async function mountCompositionContent(params: {
   for (const link of plan.linkSources) {
     const rawHref = (link.getAttribute("href") || "").trim();
     if (!rawHref) continue;
-    const href = params.compositionUrl ? new URL(rawHref, params.compositionUrl).href : rawHref;
+    const href = await hoistedLinkHref(rawHref, params.compositionUrl);
     if (params.compositionUrl && isSameDocumentUrl(href, params.compositionUrl)) continue;
     const clonedLink = link.cloneNode(true);
     if (!isLinkElement(clonedLink)) continue;