diff --git a/native_client/deepspeech.cc b/native_client/deepspeech.cc
index 72a8d1def1..32468f3a70 100755
--- a/native_client/deepspeech.cc
+++ b/native_client/deepspeech.cc
@@ -263,9 +263,10 @@ StreamingState::processBatch(const vector<float>& buf, unsigned int n_steps)
 }
 
 int
-DS_CreateModel_(const std::string &aModelString,
+DS_CreateModel_(const char* aModelString,
                 bool init_from_bytes,
-                ModelState** retval)
+                ModelState** retval,
+                size_t bufferSize=0)
 {
   *retval = nullptr;
 
@@ -348,8 +349,9 @@ DS_FreeModel(ModelState* ctx)
 
 int
 DS_EnableExternalScorer_(ModelState* aCtx,
-                         const std::string &aScorerString,
-                         bool init_from_bytes)
+                         const char* aScorerString,
+                         bool init_from_bytes,
+                         size_t bufferSize=0)
 {
   std::unique_ptr<Scorer> scorer(new Scorer());