diff --git a/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/systemd-boot/systemd-boot-builder.py b/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/systemd-boot/systemd-boot-builder.py
index b22d12cf28eb..d3dd29147651 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/systemd-boot/systemd-boot-builder.py
+++ b/nixos/modules/system/boot/loader/systemd-boot/systemd-boot-builder.py
@@ -88,29 +88,26 @@ class InitrdWithSecretsWriter:
     initrd_secrets: Path
 
     def write_boot_file(self, path: Path) -> None:
-        if path.exists():
-            # TODO: This is for matching old behavior. Previously, we
-            # appended secrets to initrd every time no matter what, so
-            # we must continue doing that. One potential alternative
-            # would be running the secret script on an empty file and
-            # using the hashed contents of that file as part of the
-            # key that the path name is based on.
-            run([self.initrd_secrets, path])
-        else:
-            with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(
-                mode="wb",
-                dir=path.parent,
-                delete=False,
-                prefix=path.name,
-                suffix=".tmp",
-            ) as tmp:
-                with open(self.source, mode="rb") as source_file:
-                    shutil.copyfileobj(source_file, tmp)
-                tmp.flush()
-                run([self.initrd_secrets, tmp.name])
-                os.fsync(tmp.fileno())
-                tmp.close()
-                os.rename(tmp.name, path)
+        # Secrets can change between rebuilds, so always rebuild from the
+        # pristine initrd into a temp file and rename into place.
+        tmp = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(
+            mode="wb",
+            dir=path.parent,
+            delete=False,
+            prefix=path.name,
+            suffix=".tmp",
+        )
+        try:
+            with open(self.source, mode="rb") as source_file:
+                shutil.copyfileobj(source_file, tmp)
+            tmp.close()
+            run([self.initrd_secrets, tmp.name])
+            with open(tmp.name, "rb") as f:
+                os.fsync(f.fileno())
+        except BaseException:
+            os.unlink(tmp.name)
+            raise
+        os.rename(tmp.name, path)
 
 
 @dataclass