diff --git a/R/metadata.R b/R/metadata.R
index 13536ca0..b2cfc887 100644
--- a/R/metadata.R
+++ b/R/metadata.R
@@ -247,7 +247,9 @@ static_orderly_artefact <- function(args) {
 ##' @return Undefined
 ##' @export
 orderly_dependency <- function(name, query, files) {
-  assert_scalar_character(name, call = environment())
+  if (!is.null(name)) {
+    assert_scalar_character(name, call = environment())
+  }
 
   ctx <- orderly_context(rlang::caller_env())
   subquery <- NULL
@@ -276,6 +278,9 @@ static_orderly_dependency <- function(args) {
   query <- args$query
   files <- args$files
 
+  static_name <- static_string(name)
+  has_name <- !is.null(static_name) || is.null(name)
+
   name <- static_string(name)
   files <- static_character_vector(files, TRUE)
 
@@ -288,10 +293,10 @@ static_orderly_dependency <- function(args) {
     query <- NULL
   }
 
-  if (is.null(name) || is.null(files) || is.null(query)) {
+  if (!has_name || is.null(files) || is.null(query)) {
     return(NULL)
   }
-  list(name = name, query = query, files = files)
+  list(name = static_name, query = query, files = files)
 }
 
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-read.R b/tests/testthat/test-read.R
index f95393eb..058dff45 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-read.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-read.R
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ test_that("read dependency", {
   args <- list(name = "a", query = "latest", files = c(x = "y"))
   expect_equal(static_orderly_dependency(args), args)
 
+  args <- list(name = NULL, query = "latest", files = c(x = "y"))
+  expect_equal(static_orderly_dependency(args), args)
+
   expect_null(
     static_orderly_dependency(list(name = quote(a),
                                    query = "latest",
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-run.R b/tests/testthat/test-run.R
index c7949688..1652037d 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-run.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-run.R
@@ -1233,3 +1233,28 @@ test_that("nice error if resource file not found", {
   expect_match(err$parent$body[[1]],
                "Looked within directory '.+/src/explicit'")
 })
+
+
+test_that("can add a dependency on an id with no name", {
+  path <- test_prepare_orderly_example(c("data", "depends"))
+  envir1 <- new.env()
+  id1 <- orderly_run_quietly("data", root = path, envir = envir1)
+
+  path_src <- file.path(path, "src", "depends", "orderly.R")
+  code <- readLines(path_src)
+  i <- grep("orderly2::orderly_dependency", code)
+  code[[i]] <- sprintf(
+    "orderly2::orderly_dependency(NULL, '%s', c(input.rds = 'data.rds'))",
+    id1)
+  writeLines(code, path_src)
+  envir2 <- new.env()
+  id2 <- orderly_run_quietly("depends", root = path, envir = envir2)
+
+  meta <- orderly_metadata(id2, root = path)
+  expect_equal(
+    meta$depends,
+    data_frame(
+      packet = id1,
+      query = sprintf('single(id == "%s")', id1),
+      files = I(list(data_frame(here = "input.rds", there = "data.rds")))))
+})