diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-metal/ggml-metal-fuse.cpp b/ggml/src/ggml-metal/ggml-metal-fuse.cpp
index d4c065e49d..7ded58534a 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-metal/ggml-metal-fuse.cpp
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-metal/ggml-metal-fuse.cpp
@@ -7,14 +7,12 @@
 
 // ---- helpers -------------------------------------------------------------
 
-// the pattern outputs, defaulting to the last node
+// the pattern outputs (absolute graph node indices); the default is the last node
 static const int * ggml_metal_fuse_outputs(const struct ggml_metal_fuse * fuse, int * buf) {
     if (fuse->outputs) {
         return fuse->outputs;
     }
 
-    buf[0] = fuse->n_ops - 1;
-
     return buf;
 }
 
@@ -224,7 +222,9 @@ const struct ggml_metal_fuse * ggml_metal_fuse_next(
             continue;
         }
 
+        // ggml_can_fuse_subgraph_ext expects outputs as absolute graph node indices
         int outputs_buf[GGML_MAX_SRC];
+        outputs_buf[0] = node_idxs[idx + fuse->n_ops - 1];
         const int * outputs = ggml_metal_fuse_outputs(fuse, outputs_buf);
         const int n_outputs = fuse->n_outputs ? fuse->n_outputs : 1;
 
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-metal/ggml-metal-fuse.h b/ggml/src/ggml-metal/ggml-metal-fuse.h
index 63ab0847fd..9186926932 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-metal/ggml-metal-fuse.h
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-metal/ggml-metal-fuse.h
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ struct ggml_metal_fuse {
     enum ggml_metal_fuse_id id;
     const enum ggml_op *    ops;      // op sequence (fixed length)
     int                     n_ops;    // number of ops
-    const int *             outputs;  // output node indices relative to the subgraph start (nullptr => { n_ops-1 })
+    const int *             outputs;  // output node indices (absolute graph indices; nullptr => the last node)
     int                     n_outputs;// number of outputs (0 => default last node)
     // extra backend constraints on top of ggml_can_fuse_subgraph
     // nodes[j] is the j-th node of the pattern