diff --git a/.changeset/tidy-bats-prove.md b/.changeset/tidy-bats-prove.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8c7f5d51eda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/tidy-bats-prove.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@shopify/theme': patch
+---
+
+Fix `theme dev` preview occasionally rendering the live theme by preserving the Shopify `_shopify_essential` cookie in redirects
diff --git a/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/proxy.test.ts b/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/proxy.test.ts
index 4329aa35ccc..efacdc852ea 100644
--- a/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/proxy.test.ts
+++ b/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/proxy.test.ts
@@ -250,6 +250,67 @@ describe('dev proxy', () => {
       expect(ctx.session.sessionCookies).toHaveProperty('_shopify_essential', ':AZFbAlZ..yAAH:')
     })
 
+    test('captures _shopify_essential from Set-Cookie into session on 3xx responses', async () => {
+      const localCtx = {
+        ...ctx,
+        session: {storeFqdn: 'my-store.myshopify.com', sessionCookies: {}},
+      } as unknown as DevServerContext
+
+      const redirectResponse = new Response('should-not-be-read', {
+        status: 302,
+        headers: {
+          Location: 'https://my-store.myshopify.com/foo?bar=1',
+          'Set-Cookie':
+            '_shopify_essential=ABC123; Domain=my-store.myshopify.com; Path=/; Max-Age=31536000; secure; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax',
+        },
+      })
+
+      const patchedResponse = await patchRenderingResponse(localCtx, redirectResponse)
+
+      expect(patchedResponse.status).toBe(302)
+      expect(localCtx.session.sessionCookies).toHaveProperty('_shopify_essential', 'ABC123')
+    })
+
+    test('rewrites Location header from store domain to local path on 3xx responses', async () => {
+      const localCtx = {
+        ...ctx,
+        session: {storeFqdn: 'my-store.myshopify.com', sessionCookies: {}},
+      } as unknown as DevServerContext
+
+      const redirectResponse = new Response('should-not-be-read', {
+        status: 302,
+        headers: {
+          Location: 'https://my-store.myshopify.com/foo?bar=1',
+        },
+      })
+
+      const patchedResponse = await patchRenderingResponse(localCtx, redirectResponse)
+
+      expect(patchedResponse.status).toBe(302)
+      expect(patchedResponse.headers.get('Location')).toBe('/foo?bar=1')
+    })
+
+    test('returns 3xx responses without reading or patching the body', async () => {
+      const localCtx = {
+        ...ctx,
+        session: {storeFqdn: 'my-store.myshopify.com', sessionCookies: {}},
+      } as unknown as DevServerContext
+
+      const body = '<a href="https://my-store.myshopify.com/cdn/path/to/assets/file1">link</a>'
+      const redirectResponse = new Response(body, {
+        status: 301,
+        headers: {
+          Location: 'https://my-store.myshopify.com/foo',
+        },
+      })
+
+      const patchedResponse = await patchRenderingResponse(localCtx, redirectResponse)
+
+      expect(patchedResponse.status).toBe(301)
+      // CDN injection would rewrite the href; body should be passed through unchanged.
+      await expect(patchedResponse.text()).resolves.toBe(body)
+    })
+
     test('handles 304 Not Modified responses without crashing', async () => {
       // Create 304 response with no body as per HTTP spec
       const notModifiedResponse = new Response(null, {
diff --git a/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/proxy.ts b/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/proxy.ts
index 6f4b765da5f..2dfa7f95527 100644
--- a/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/proxy.ts
+++ b/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/proxy.ts
@@ -194,13 +194,13 @@ export async function patchRenderingResponse(
   rawResponse: Response,
   patchCallback?: (html: string) => string | undefined,
 ): Promise<Response> {
+  const response = patchProxiedResponseHeaders(ctx, rawResponse)
+
   // 3xx responses should be returned
-  if (rawResponse.status >= 300 && rawResponse.status < 400) {
-    return rawResponse
+  if (response.status >= 300 && response.status < 400) {
+    return response
   }
 
-  const response = patchProxiedResponseHeaders(ctx, rawResponse)
-
   // Only set HTML content-type for actual HTML responses, preserve JSON content-type:
   const originalContentType = rawResponse.headers.get('content-type')
   const isJsonResponse = originalContentType?.includes('application/json')
diff --git a/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/storefront-renderer.test.ts b/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/storefront-renderer.test.ts
index 87e32234bea..3b75a96391c 100644
--- a/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/storefront-renderer.test.ts
+++ b/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/storefront-renderer.test.ts
@@ -205,6 +205,58 @@ describe('render', () => {
     )
   })
 
+  test('does not auto-follow 3xx responses on GET (preserves intermediate Set-Cookie)', async () => {
+    // Given
+    vi.mocked(fetch).mockResolvedValue(
+      new Response('redirected-body-should-not-be-returned', {
+        status: 302,
+        headers: {Location: 'https://store.myshopify.com/products/1'},
+      }),
+    )
+
+    // When
+    const response = await render(session, context)
+
+    // Then
+    expect(response.status).toEqual(302)
+    expect(response.headers.get('Location')).toEqual('https://store.myshopify.com/products/1')
+    expect(fetch).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.any(String),
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        method: 'GET',
+        redirect: 'manual',
+      }),
+    )
+  })
+
+  test('does not auto-follow 3xx responses on POST (replaceTemplates branch)', async () => {
+    // Given
+    vi.mocked(fetch).mockResolvedValue(
+      new Response('redirected-body-should-not-be-returned', {
+        status: 302,
+        headers: {Location: 'https://store.myshopify.com/products/1'},
+      }),
+    )
+
+    // When
+    const response = await render(session, {
+      ...context,
+      method: 'POST',
+      replaceTemplates: {'sections/header.liquid': '<div>hello</div>'},
+    })
+
+    // Then
+    expect(response.status).toEqual(302)
+    expect(response.headers.get('Location')).toEqual('https://store.myshopify.com/products/1')
+    expect(fetch).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expect.any(String),
+      expect.objectContaining({
+        method: 'POST',
+        redirect: 'manual',
+      }),
+    )
+  })
+
   test('renders using query parameters', async () => {
     // Given
     vi.mocked(fetch).mockResolvedValue(new Response())
diff --git a/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/storefront-renderer.ts b/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/storefront-renderer.ts
index 4a61e423558..efd4d654402 100644
--- a/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/storefront-renderer.ts
+++ b/packages/theme/src/cli/utilities/theme-environment/storefront-renderer.ts
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ export async function render(session: DevServerSession, context: DevServerRender
     response = await fetch(url, {
       method: 'POST',
       body: bodyParams,
+      redirect: 'manual',
       headers: {
         ...headers,
         ...defaultHeaders(),
@@ -36,6 +37,7 @@ export async function render(session: DevServerSession, context: DevServerRender
     // eslint-disable-next-line no-restricted-globals
     response = await fetch(url, {
       method: context.method,
+      redirect: 'manual',
       headers: {
         ...headers,
         ...defaultHeaders(),