diff --git a/src/babashka/impl/tasks.clj b/src/babashka/impl/tasks.clj
index d4d84b1a..27d04d66 100644
--- a/src/babashka/impl/tasks.clj
+++ b/src/babashka/impl/tasks.clj
@@ -85,11 +85,12 @@
    (let [task (tasks task-name)
          depends (:depends task)]
      (loop [deps (seq depends)]
-       (let [p @processed
-             deps (remove #(contains? p %) deps)
+       (let [deps (remove #(contains? @processed %) deps)
              order (vec (mapcat #(target-order tasks % processed) deps))]
-         (vswap! processed conj task-name)
-         (conj order task-name))))))
+         (if-not (contains? @processed task-name)
+           (do (vswap! processed conj task-name)
+               (conj order task-name))
+           order))))))
 
 (defn assemble-task [task-name]
   (let [task-name (symbol task-name)
diff --git a/test/babashka/bb_edn_test.clj b/test/babashka/bb_edn_test.clj
index 537dbc25..2dfa6400 100644
--- a/test/babashka/bb_edn_test.clj
+++ b/test/babashka/bb_edn_test.clj
@@ -41,7 +41,15 @@
     (test-utils/with-config {:tasks {'foo (list 'shell {:out out}
                                                 "echo hello")}}
       (bb "foo")
-      (is (= "hello\n" (slurp out))))))
+      (is (= "hello\n" (slurp out))))
+    (test-utils/with-config {:tasks {'quux (list 'spit out "quux\n")
+                                     'baz (list 'spit out "baz\n" :append true)
+                                     'bar {:depends ['baz]
+                                           :task (list 'spit out "bar\n" :append true)}
+                                     'foo {:depends ['quux 'bar 'baz]
+                                           :task (list 'spit out "foo\n" :append true)}}}
+      (bb "foo")
+      (is (= "quux\nbaz\nbar\nfoo\n" (slurp out))))))
 
 ;; TODO:
 ;; Do we want to support the same parsing as the clj CLI?
diff --git a/test/babashka/impl/tasks_test.clj b/test/babashka/impl/tasks_test.clj
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a53f25b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/babashka/impl/tasks_test.clj
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+(ns babashka.impl.tasks-test
+  (:require [babashka.impl.tasks :as sut]
+            [clojure.test :as t]))
+
+(t/deftest target-order-test
+  (t/is (= '[quux bar foo]
+           (sut/target-order
+            {'foo {:depends ['bar 'quux]}
+             'bar {:depends ['quux]}}
+            'foo))))