@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from .base import IndexFile
+    from objects.tree import TreeCacheTup
     # from git.objects.fun import EntryTupOrNone
 
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -249,7 +250,7 @@ def read_cache(stream: IO[bytes]) -> Tuple[int, Dict[Tuple[PathLike, int], 'Inde
 
 
 def write_tree_from_cache(entries: List[IndexEntry], odb, sl: slice, si: int = 0
-                          ) -> Tuple[bytes, List[Tuple[bytes, int, str]]]:
+                          ) -> Tuple[bytes, List[TreeCacheTup]]:
     """Create a tree from the given sorted list of entries and put the respective
     trees into the given object database
 
@@ -259,7 +260,7 @@ def write_tree_from_cache(entries: List[IndexEntry], odb, sl: slice, si: int = 0
     :param sl: slice indicating the range we should process on the entries list
     :return: tuple(binsha, list(tree_entry, ...)) a tuple of a sha and a list of
         tree entries being a tuple of hexsha, mode, name"""
-    tree_items: List[Tuple[bytes, int, str]] = []
+    tree_items: List[TreeCacheTup] = []
 
     ci = sl.start
     end = sl.stop
@@ -305,7 +306,7 @@ def write_tree_from_cache(entries: List[IndexEntry], odb, sl: slice, si: int = 0
     return (istream.binsha, tree_items)
 
 
-def _tree_entry_to_baseindexentry(tree_entry: Tuple[bytes, int, str], stage: int) -> BaseIndexEntry:
+def _tree_entry_to_baseindexentry(tree_entry: TreeCacheTup, stage: int) -> BaseIndexEntry:
     return BaseIndexEntry((tree_entry[1], tree_entry[0], stage << CE_STAGESHIFT, tree_entry[2]))
 
 
 
@@ -215,7 +215,7 @@ def traverse_trees_recursive(odb: 'GitCmdObjectDB', tree_shas: Sequence[Union[by
     return out
 
 
-def traverse_tree_recursive(odb: 'GitCmdObjectDB', tree_sha: bytes, path_prefix: str) -> List[Tuple[bytes, int, str]]:
+def traverse_tree_recursive(odb: 'GitCmdObjectDB', tree_sha: bytes, path_prefix: str) -> List[EntryTup]:
     """
     :return: list of entries of the tree pointed to by the binary tree_sha. An entry
         has the following format:
 
@@ -31,9 +31,14 @@
     from io import BytesIO
 
 TreeCacheTup = Tuple[bytes, int, str]
+
 TraversedTreeTup = Union[Tuple[Union['Tree', None], IndexObjUnion,
                          Tuple['Submodule', 'Submodule']]]
 
+
+def is_tree_cache(inp: Tuple[bytes, int, str]) -> TypeGuard[TreeCacheTup]:
+    return isinstance(inp[0], bytes) and isinstance(inp[1], int) and isinstance([inp], str)
+
 #--------------------------------------------------------
 
 
@@ -141,11 +146,8 @@ def add(self, sha: bytes, mode: int, name: str, force: bool = False) -> 'TreeMod
         sha = to_bin_sha(sha)
         index = self._index_by_name(name)
 
-        def is_tree_cache(inp: Tuple[bytes, int, str]) -> TypeGuard[TreeCacheTup]:
-            return isinstance(inp[0], bytes) and isinstance(inp[1], int) and isinstance([inp], str)
-
         item = (sha, mode, name)
-        assert is_tree_cache(item)
+        # assert is_tree_cache(item)
 
         if index == -1:
             self._cache.append(item)
@@ -223,12 +225,12 @@ def _set_cache_(self, attr: str) -> None:
         if attr == "_cache":
             # Set the data when we need it
             ostream = self.repo.odb.stream(self.binsha)
-            self._cache: List[Tuple[bytes, int, str]] = tree_entries_from_data(ostream.read())
+            self._cache: List[TreeCacheTup] = tree_entries_from_data(ostream.read())
         else:
             super(Tree, self)._set_cache_(attr)
         # END handle attribute
 
-    def _iter_convert_to_object(self, iterable: Iterable[Tuple[bytes, int, str]]
+    def _iter_convert_to_object(self, iterable: Iterable[TreeCacheTup]
                                 ) -> Iterator[IndexObjUnion]:
         """Iterable yields tuples of (binsha, mode, name), which will be converted
         to the respective object representation"""