diff --git a/inst/hooks/exported/readme-rmd-rendered.R b/inst/hooks/exported/readme-rmd-rendered.R
index 06caccd77..1ea63d063 100644
--- a/inst/hooks/exported/readme-rmd-rendered.R
+++ b/inst/hooks/exported/readme-rmd-rendered.R
@@ -35,7 +35,9 @@ if (file.exists("README.md")) {
   source_staged <- source_file %in% file_names_staged
   output_staged <- "README.md" %in% file_names_staged
 
-  if (!source_staged || !output_staged) {
-    rlang::abort(paste(source_file, "and README.md must both be staged."))
+  if (sum(source_staged, output_staged) == 1) {
+    rlang::abort(paste(
+      source_file, "and README.md must both be either staged or unstaged."
+    ))
   }
 }
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-hook-readme-rmd-rendered.R b/tests/testthat/test-hook-readme-rmd-rendered.R
index 5e28cacf9..26eafb2f0 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-hook-readme-rmd-rendered.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-hook-readme-rmd-rendered.R
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ if (has_git()) {
     run_test("readme-rmd-rendered",
       file_name = c("README.Rmd", "README.md"),
       suffix = "",
-      std_err = "must both be staged",
+      std_err = "must both be either staged",
       std_out = NULL,
       file_transformer = function(files) {
         if (length(files) > 1) {
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ if (has_git()) {
     run_test("readme-rmd-rendered",
       file_name = c("README.qmd", "README.md"),
       suffix = "",
-      std_err = "must both be staged",
+      std_err = "must both be either staged",
       std_out = NULL,
       file_transformer = function(files) {
         if (length(files) > 1) {