diff --git a/gdstk/_gdstk.pyi b/gdstk/_gdstk.pyi
index 3fa18b39..1899a0e6 100644
--- a/gdstk/_gdstk.pyi
+++ b/gdstk/_gdstk.pyi
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class Cell:
         deep_copy: bool = True,
     ) -> Cell: ...
     def delete_property(self, name: str) -> Self: ...
-    def dependencies(self, recursive: bool = True) -> Sequence[Self | RawCell]: ...
+    def dependencies(self, recursive: bool = True) -> Sequence[Cell | RawCell]: ...
     def filter(
         self,
         spec: Iterable[tuple[int, int]],
@@ -496,7 +496,7 @@ class RawCell:
     name: str
     size: int
     def __init__(self, name: str)-> None: ...
-    def dependencies(self, recursive: bool) -> list[RawCell]: ...
+    def dependencies(self, recursive: bool = True) -> list[RawCell]: ...
 
 class Reference:
     cell: Cell
diff --git a/python/cell_object.cpp b/python/cell_object.cpp
index f9ed4553..e6c00e73 100644
--- a/python/cell_object.cpp
+++ b/python/cell_object.cpp
@@ -971,7 +971,7 @@ static PyObject* cell_object_remap(CellObject* self, PyObject* args, PyObject* k
 static PyObject* cell_object_dependencies(CellObject* self, PyObject* args, PyObject* kwds) {
     int recursive = 1;
     const char* keywords[] = {"recursive", NULL};
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "p:dependencies", (char**)keywords, &recursive))
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "|p:dependencies", (char**)keywords, &recursive))
         return NULL;
 
     Map<Cell*> cell_map = {};
diff --git a/python/rawcell_object.cpp b/python/rawcell_object.cpp
index 3c06c7f6..4f2d9ca8 100644
--- a/python/rawcell_object.cpp
+++ b/python/rawcell_object.cpp
@@ -47,8 +47,8 @@ static int rawcell_object_init(RawCellObject* self, PyObject* args, PyObject* kw
 }
 
 static PyObject* rawcell_object_dependencies(RawCellObject* self, PyObject* args) {
-    int recursive;
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "p:dependencies", &recursive)) return NULL;
+    int recursive = 1;
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "|p:dependencies", &recursive)) return NULL;
     Map<RawCell*> rawcell_map = {};
     self->rawcell->get_dependencies(recursive > 0, rawcell_map);
     PyObject* result = PyList_New(rawcell_map.count);