diff --git a/rust/hg-cpython/src/dirstate.rs b/rust/hg-cpython/src/dirstate.rs
--- a/rust/hg-cpython/src/dirstate.rs
+++ b/rust/hg-cpython/src/dirstate.rs
@@ -73,6 +73,19 @@
     maybe_obj.ok_or_else(|| PyErr::fetch(py))
 }
 
+// XXX a bit strange to have a dedicated function, but directory are not
+// treated as dirstate node by hg-core for now so…
+pub fn make_directory_item(py: Python, mtime: i32) -> PyResult<PyObject> {
+    // might be silly to retrieve capsule function in hot loop
+    let make = make_dirstate_item_capi::retrieve(py)?;
+
+    let maybe_obj = unsafe {
+        let ptr = make(b'd' as c_char, 0 as i32, 0 as i32, mtime);
+        PyObject::from_owned_ptr_opt(py, ptr)
+    };
+    maybe_obj.ok_or_else(|| PyErr::fetch(py))
+}
+
 pub fn extract_dirstate(py: Python, dmap: &PyDict) -> Result<StateMap, PyErr> {
     dmap.items(py)
         .iter()
diff --git a/rust/hg-cpython/src/dirstate/dirstate_map.rs b/rust/hg-cpython/src/dirstate/dirstate_map.rs
--- a/rust/hg-cpython/src/dirstate/dirstate_map.rs
+++ b/rust/hg-cpython/src/dirstate/dirstate_map.rs
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 use crate::{
     dirstate::copymap::{CopyMap, CopyMapItemsIterator, CopyMapKeysIterator},
+    dirstate::make_directory_item,
     dirstate::make_dirstate_item,
     dirstate::non_normal_entries::{
         NonNormalEntries, NonNormalEntriesIterator,
@@ -519,7 +520,8 @@
             let (path, mtime) = item.map_err(|e| v2_error(py, e))?;
             let path = PyBytes::new(py, path.as_bytes());
             let mtime = mtime.map(|t| t.0).unwrap_or(-1);
-            let tuple = (path, (b'd', 0, 0, mtime));
+            let item = make_directory_item(py, mtime as i32)?;
+            let tuple = (path, item);
             dirs.append(py, tuple.to_py_object(py).into_object())
         }
         Ok(dirs)