From 9a06b7c3c5b223af84f6d4b669d9d606d7611f14 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Huanyi Xie <74809554+xiehuanyi@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2026 21:32:19 +0300
Subject: [PATCH 1/3] Annotate existing bytes support in Version.is_valid

---
 changelog.d/pr495.bugfix.rst | 1 +
 src/semver/version.py        | 4 ++--
 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 changelog.d/pr495.bugfix.rst

diff --git a/changelog.d/pr495.bugfix.rst b/changelog.d/pr495.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ac01fa8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/pr495.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+The type annotation of ``Version.is_valid()`` now includes its existing support for UTF-8 encoded byte strings.
diff --git a/src/semver/version.py b/src/semver/version.py
index 7ead382e..6160bf73 100644
--- a/src/semver/version.py
+++ b/src/semver/version.py
@@ -789,7 +789,7 @@ def replace(self, **parts: Union[int, Optional[str]]) -> "Version":
             raise TypeError(error)
 
     @classmethod
-    def is_valid(cls, version: str) -> bool:
+    def is_valid(cls, version: String) -> bool:
         """
         Check if the string is a valid semver version.
 
@@ -798,7 +798,7 @@ def is_valid(cls, version: str) -> bool:
         .. versionchanged:: 3.0.0
            Renamed from :meth:`~semver.version.Version.isvalid`
 
-        :param version: the version string to check
+        :param version: the version string to check, as str or UTF-8 encoded bytes
         :return: True if the version string is a valid semver version, False
                  otherwise.
         """

From 40b14bfe9e15eddaa84a9b83c2b5e0b196b72adb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Huanyi Xie <74809554+xiehuanyi@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2026 19:39:14 +0300
Subject: [PATCH 2/3] Test is_valid with valid, invalid and non-UTF-8 bytes

---
 tests/test_semver.py | 15 +++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/tests/test_semver.py b/tests/test_semver.py
index 9978b940..395d86a5 100644
--- a/tests/test_semver.py
+++ b/tests/test_semver.py
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 from semver import Version
 
+_UTF8_VERSION = "1.0.0"
+
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "string,expected", [("rc", "rc"), ("rc.1", "rc.2"), ("2x", "3x")]
@@ -77,6 +79,19 @@ def test_should_versioninfo_isvalid():
     assert Version.is_valid("foo") is False
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "version,expected",
+    [
+        pytest.param(b"1.0.0", True, id="valid-bytes"),
+        pytest.param(b"foo", False, id="invalid-version-bytes"),
+        pytest.param(_UTF8_VERSION.encode("UTF-8"), True, id="utf8-encoded-version"),
+        pytest.param(b"\xff", False, id="invalid-utf8"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_is_valid_bytes(version, expected):
+    assert Version.is_valid(version) is expected
+
+
 def test_versioninfo_compare_should_raise_when_passed_invalid_value():
     with pytest.raises(TypeError):
         Version(1, 2, 3).compare(4)

From 27b05258718bfca85212305324bb6be2ba7a5241 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tom Schraitle <tom_schr@web.de>
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2026 08:57:58 +0200
Subject: [PATCH 3/3] Remove leading underscore in variable

---
 tests/test_semver.py | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tests/test_semver.py b/tests/test_semver.py
index 395d86a5..fabf8276 100644
--- a/tests/test_semver.py
+++ b/tests/test_semver.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 from semver import Version
 
-_UTF8_VERSION = "1.0.0"
+UTF8_VERSION = "1.0.0"
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def test_should_versioninfo_isvalid():
     [
         pytest.param(b"1.0.0", True, id="valid-bytes"),
         pytest.param(b"foo", False, id="invalid-version-bytes"),
-        pytest.param(_UTF8_VERSION.encode("UTF-8"), True, id="utf8-encoded-version"),
+        pytest.param(UTF8_VERSION.encode("UTF-8"), True, id="utf8-encoded-version"),
         pytest.param(b"\xff", False, id="invalid-utf8"),
     ],
 )