python(fix): support bytes channel values, bump bindings to 0.5.1, v0.21.0 release prep

python/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## [v0.21.0] - September 4, 2026
+
 ### What's New
 
 #### List and get data imports
@@ -38,6 +40,7 @@ CsvDataColumn(
 Setting `enum_types` on a non-enum data type raises a validation error. Multi-channel Parquet single-channel-per-row imports don't support enums, since channel configs there are derived per row.
 
 ### Bugfixes
+- Fix ingesting `ChannelDataType.BYTES` channels. Registering a flow with a bytes channel raised `ValueError: Unknown data type: bytes`, and sending a value on one raised `ValueError: Invalid data type: bytes`. Both paths now map to the bytes type in `sift-stream-bindings`. Values may be `bytes`, `bytearray`, `memoryview`, or an iterable of ints. Requires `sift-stream-bindings` 0.5.1.
 - Fix `channels.get_data` printing a `UserWarning: Discarding nonzero nanoseconds in conversion` once per channel on each run-scoped fetch. The channel data cache stored segment bounds as `datetime`, which truncated the nanosecond timestamps the data already carries; they are now `pd.Timestamp`. `start_time` and `end_time` on `get_data` and `get_data_as_arrow` also accept a `pd.Timestamp` now, and its nanoseconds survive to the wire, where the service filters on them.
 
 ## [v0.20.0] - August 25, 2026

python/lib/sift_client/_tests/sift_types/test_ingestion.py

@@ -8,9 +8,11 @@
 from sift_client.sift_types.channel import ChannelBitFieldElement, ChannelDataType
 from sift_client.sift_types.ingestion import (
     ChannelConfig,
+    ChannelValue,
     FlowConfig,
     IngestionConfig,
     _to_rust_type,
+    _to_rust_value,
 )
 
 
@@ -84,6 +86,50 @@ def test_to_rust_type_covers_every_channel_data_type(self):
         assert _to_rust_type(ChannelDataType.BYTES) == ChannelDataTypePy.Bytes
 
 
+class TestChannelValue:
+    """Unit tests for ChannelValue conversion to the Rust bindings."""
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "value",
+        [b"\xde\xad", bytearray(b"\xde\xad"), memoryview(b"\xde\xad"), [0xDE, 0xAD]],
+    )
+    def test_to_rust_form_bytes(self, value):
+        """Test BYTES channel values reach the Rust Bytes variant, not BitField."""
+        channel_value = ChannelValue(name="payload", ty=ChannelDataType.BYTES, value=value)
+
+        value_py = channel_value._to_rust_form().value
+
+        assert value_py.is_bytes()
+        assert not value_py.is_bitfield()
+        assert bytes(value_py.as_bytes()) == b"\xde\xad"
+
+    def test_to_rust_form_bytes_none_is_empty(self):
+        """Test a None BYTES value becomes an empty value."""
+        channel_value = ChannelValue(name="payload", ty=ChannelDataType.BYTES, value=None)
+
+        assert channel_value._to_rust_form().value.is_empty()
+
+    def test_to_rust_form_covers_every_channel_data_type(self):
+        """Test _to_rust_form has a branch for every ChannelDataType."""
+        for data_type in ChannelDataType:
+            # A None value takes the Empty path but still exercises the data type branch.
+            channel_value = ChannelValue(name="c", ty=data_type, value=None)
+            assert channel_value._to_rust_form().value.is_empty()
+
+    def test_to_rust_value_bytes(self):
+        """Test the flow-config value converter accepts BYTES channels."""
+        channel = ChannelConfig(name="payload", data_type=ChannelDataType.BYTES)
+
+        # Raises ValueError("Invalid data type: bytes") if the branch is missing.
+        assert _to_rust_value(channel, b"\xde\xad") is not None
+
+    def test_to_rust_value_string(self):
+        """Test the flow-config value converter accepts STRING channels."""
+        channel = ChannelConfig(name="label", data_type=ChannelDataType.STRING)
+
+        assert _to_rust_value(channel, "hello") is not None
+
+
 class TestFlowConfig:
     """Unit tests for FlowConfig model."""
 

python/lib/sift_client/sift_types/ingestion.py

@@ -386,6 +386,9 @@ def _to_rust_form(self):
             value_py = ValuePy.Uint64(self.value)
         elif self.ty == ChannelDataType.STRING:
             value_py = ValuePy.String(self.value)
+        elif self.ty == ChannelDataType.BYTES:
+            # Accept bytes, bytearray, memoryview, or any iterable of ints.
+            value_py = ValuePy.Bytes(None if self.value is None else bytes(self.value))
         else:
             raise ValueError(f"Invalid data type: {self.ty}")
 
@@ -501,6 +504,10 @@ def _to_rust_value(channel: ChannelConfig, value: Any) -> IngestWithConfigDataCh
         return IngestWithConfigDataChannelValuePy.uint32(value)
     elif channel.data_type == ChannelDataType.UINT_64:
         return IngestWithConfigDataChannelValuePy.uint64(value)
+    elif channel.data_type == ChannelDataType.STRING:
+        return IngestWithConfigDataChannelValuePy.string(value)
+    elif channel.data_type == ChannelDataType.BYTES:
+        return IngestWithConfigDataChannelValuePy.bytes(bytes(value))
     else:
         raise ValueError(f"Invalid data type: {channel.data_type}")
 

python/pyproject.toml

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "sift_stack_py"
-version = "0.20.0"
+version = "0.21.0"
 description = "Python client library for the Sift API"
 requires-python = ">=3.8"
 readme = { file = "README.md", content-type = "text/markdown" }
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ all = [
     'pyarrow>=17.0.0',
     'pyulog~=1.2.2',
     "rosbags~=0.0 ; python_full_version >= '3.8.2'",
-    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.0',
+    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.1',
     'types-pyOpenSSL<24.0.0',
 ]
 build = [
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ dev-all = [
     'pyulog~=1.2.2',
     "rosbags~=0.0 ; python_full_version >= '3.8.2'",
     'ruff~=0.12.10',
-    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.0',
+    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.1',
     'tomlkit~=0.13.3',
     'types-pyOpenSSL<24.0.0',
 ]
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ docs-build = [
     'pyulog~=1.2.2',
     "rosbags~=0.0 ; python_full_version >= '3.8.2'",
     'ruff~=0.12.10',
-    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.0',
+    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.1',
     'tomlkit~=0.13.3',
     'types-pyOpenSSL<24.0.0',
 ]
@@ -197,10 +197,10 @@ rosbags = [
     "rosbags~=0.0 ; python_full_version >= '3.8.2'",
 ]
 sift-stream = [
-    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.0',
+    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.1',
 ]
 sift-stream-bindings = [
-    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.0',
+    'sift-stream-bindings==0.5.1',
 ]
 tdms = [
     'npTDMS~=1.9',
@@ -248,7 +248,7 @@ docs = [
 openssl = ["pyOpenSSL<24.0.0", "types-pyOpenSSL<24.0.0", "cffi~=1.14"]
 tdms = ["npTDMS~=1.9"]
 rosbags = ["rosbags~=0.0 ; python_full_version >= '3.8.2'"]
-sift-stream = ["sift-stream-bindings==0.5.0"]
+sift-stream = ["sift-stream-bindings==0.5.1"]
 hdf5 = ["h5py~=3.11", "polars~=1.8"]  # polars is only used by sift_py; remove once sift_py is fully deprecated
 ulog = ["pyulog~=1.2.2"]
 data-review = ["pyarrow>=17.0.0"]