diff --git a/veilid-flutter/lib/routing_context.dart b/veilid-flutter/lib/routing_context.dart
index fdd7fd1e..84dd7eaa 100644
--- a/veilid-flutter/lib/routing_context.dart
+++ b/veilid-flutter/lib/routing_context.dart
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ sealed class DHTSchema with _$DHTSchema {
       _$DHTSchemaFromJson(json);
 }
 
+const DHTSchema defaultDHTSchema = DHTSchema.dflt(oCnt: 1);
+
 @freezed
 class DHTSchemaMember with _$DHTSchemaMember {
   @Assert('mCnt > 0 && mCnt <= 65535', 'value out of range')
diff --git a/veilid-flutter/lib/veilid_encoding.dart b/veilid-flutter/lib/veilid_encoding.dart
index 23fa8362..d6334139 100644
--- a/veilid-flutter/lib/veilid_encoding.dart
+++ b/veilid-flutter/lib/veilid_encoding.dart
@@ -47,6 +47,19 @@ abstract class EncodedString extends Equatable {
   @override
   String toString() => contents;
 
+  static T fromBytes<T extends EncodedString>(Uint8List bytes) {
+    switch (T) {
+      case FixedEncodedString32:
+        return FixedEncodedString32.fromBytes(bytes) as T;
+      case FixedEncodedString43:
+        return FixedEncodedString43.fromBytes(bytes) as T;
+      case FixedEncodedString86:
+        return FixedEncodedString86.fromBytes(bytes) as T;
+      default:
+        throw UnimplementedError();
+    }
+  }
+
   static T fromString<T extends EncodedString>(String s) {
     switch (T) {
       case FixedEncodedString32:
@@ -72,6 +85,13 @@ class FixedEncodedString32 extends EncodedString {
     return 24;
   }
 
+  factory FixedEncodedString32.fromBytes(Uint8List bytes) {
+    if (bytes.length != decodedLength()) {
+      throw Exception("length ${bytes.length} should be ${decodedLength()}");
+    }
+    return FixedEncodedString32._(base64UrlNoPadEncode(bytes));
+  }
+
   factory FixedEncodedString32.fromString(String s) {
     var d = base64UrlNoPadDecode(s);
     if (d.length != decodedLength()) {
@@ -96,6 +116,13 @@ class FixedEncodedString43 extends EncodedString {
     return 32;
   }
 
+  factory FixedEncodedString43.fromBytes(Uint8List bytes) {
+    if (bytes.length != decodedLength()) {
+      throw Exception("length ${bytes.length} should be ${decodedLength()}");
+    }
+    return FixedEncodedString43._(base64UrlNoPadEncode(bytes));
+  }
+
   factory FixedEncodedString43.fromString(String s) {
     var d = base64UrlNoPadDecode(s);
     if (d.length != decodedLength()) {
@@ -124,6 +151,13 @@ class FixedEncodedString86 extends EncodedString {
     return toString();
   }
 
+  factory FixedEncodedString86.fromBytes(Uint8List bytes) {
+    if (bytes.length != decodedLength()) {
+      throw Exception("length ${bytes.length} should be ${decodedLength()}");
+    }
+    return FixedEncodedString86._(base64UrlNoPadEncode(bytes));
+  }
+
   factory FixedEncodedString86.fromString(String s) {
     var d = base64UrlNoPadDecode(s);
     if (d.length != decodedLength()) {
diff --git a/veilid-python/pyproject.toml b/veilid-python/pyproject.toml
index 7b59ddd4..93eae34f 100644
--- a/veilid-python/pyproject.toml
+++ b/veilid-python/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 [tool.poetry]
-name = "veilid-python"
-version = "0.1.0"
+name = "veilid"
+version = "0.5.0"
 description = ""
-authors = ["Christien Rioux <chris@veilid.org>"]
+authors = ["Veilid Team <contact@veilid.com>"]
 readme = "README.md"
 packages = [{include = "veilid"}]