@@ -55,8 +55,9 @@ API changes
   restoring Kas's Git identity cleanup. Git performs each mutation and locks
   it independently; replacement is not one atomic transaction. Empty sections
   and ``add_section()`` remain unsupported, including Kas's SSH key setup.
-* Explicit ``from git import Union`` imports remain available for Demisto SDK's
-  validator registration, retaining the historical ``typing.Union`` alias.
+* Explicit ``from git import Union`` and ``Optional`` imports remain available
+  for Demisto SDK's validator registration and MkDocs RSS Plugin imports,
+  retaining the historical ``typing`` aliases.
 * Editable/source imports expose the release version in ``git.__version__``,
   matching built distributions. Salt's GitPython provider checks can parse the
   version instead of rejecting the unstamped ``"git"`` build placeholder.
 
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@
 
     __version__ = (_Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "VERSION").read_text(encoding="utf-8").strip()
 
-from typing import Optional as _Optional
+from typing import Optional as Optional  # Compatibility for downstream explicit imports.
 from typing import Union as Union  # Compatibility for downstream explicit imports.
 
 from git.util import to_hex_sha
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@
 GIT_OK = None
 
 
-def refresh(path: _Optional[PathLike] = None) -> None:
+def refresh(path: Optional[PathLike] = None) -> None:
     """Convenience method for setting the git executable path.
 
     :param path:
 
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 """Public GitPython queries used by released downstream projects."""
 
 from pathlib import Path
-from typing import Union
+from typing import Optional, Union
 from importlib.metadata import version
 
 import pytest
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@ def test_legacy_typing_union_import_supports_downstream_registration():
     assert GitUnion is Union
 
 
+def test_legacy_typing_optional_import_supports_downstream_plugin_import():
+    from git import Optional as GitOptional
+
+    assert GitOptional is Optional
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("object_format", ["sha1", "sha256"])
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("ref_format", ["files", "reftable"])
 def test_config_section_assignment_restores_downstream_git_identity(object_format, ref_format):