Index: pluginconf/__init__.py
==================================================================
--- pluginconf/__init__.py
+++ pluginconf/__init__.py
@@ -294,19 +294,24 @@
             try:
                 #log.debug(f"mod={base} fn={filename}.py")
                 src = get_data(filename=module+sfx, decode=True, file_root=base, warn=False)
                 if src:
                     break
-            except (IOError, OSError, FileNotFoundError):
+            except (IOError, OSError, FileNotFoundError, UnicodeDecodeError) as exc:
+                log.debug("base=%s module=%s sfx=%s, exception=%s", base, module, sfx, exc)
                 continue  # plugin_meta_extract() will print a notice later
         else:
             log.warning("Found no source candidate for '%s'", module)
         filename = module
 
     # Real filename/path
     elif filename and os.path.exists(filename):
-        src = open(filename).read(kwargs.get("max_length", 6144))
+        try:
+            with open(filename, "r", encoding="utf-8") as read:
+                src = read.read(kwargs.get("max_length", 6144))
+        except UnicodeDecodeError as exc:
+            log.error("read/decode error %s for %s", exc, filename)
 
     # Else get source directly from caller
     elif not src and not filename:
         module = inspect.getmodule(sys._getframe(frame+1)) # decorator+1
         filename = inspect.getsourcefile(module)
@@ -348,11 +353,11 @@
     | literal     | bool    | just split comment from doc     |
     | **Returns** | dict    | fields                          |
     """
 
     # Defaults
-    meta = {
+    meta = PluginMeta({
         "id": os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(filename or ""))[0],
         "fn": filename,
         "api": "python",
         "type": "module",
         "category": None,
@@ -360,11 +365,11 @@
         "version": "0",
         "title": filename,
         "description": "no description",
         "config": [],
         "doc": ""
-    }
+    })
 
     # Extract coherent comment block
     src = src.replace("\r", "")
     if not literal:
         src = rx.header.sub("", src)
@@ -382,11 +387,11 @@
     # Turn key:value lines into dictionary
     for field in rx.keyval.findall(src):
         meta[field[0].replace("-", "_").lower()] = field[1].strip()
     meta["config"] = plugin_meta_config(meta.get("config") or "")
 
-    return PluginMeta(meta)
+    return meta
 
 
 # Dict/list wrappers
 # ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
 class PluginMeta(dict):