diff --git a/hggit/overlay.py b/hggit/overlay.py
index 86feb2886827e86af1815b50a96939c46c982bac_aGdnaXQvb3ZlcmxheS5weQ==..646a397fb169887b1244eb9d1b9140bc3aa61b66_aGdnaXQvb3ZlcmxheS5weQ== 100644
--- a/hggit/overlay.py
+++ b/hggit/overlay.py
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@
         match = None
 
     kwargs = {
-        b'clean': clean
+        'clean': clean
     }
     # Older versions of mercurial don't support the match arg, so only add it
     # if it exists.