diff --git a/dev-python/rapidfuzz/Manifest b/dev-python/rapidfuzz/Manifest
index 84dc88e31980b..5566f3da26662 100644
--- a/dev-python/rapidfuzz/Manifest
+++ b/dev-python/rapidfuzz/Manifest
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 DIST rapidfuzz-3.11.0.tar.gz 57983000 BLAKE2B 0de87fc6a392162b3ef908ed003f54b062d4a3a798cb6915c6ca1e4736ddf5666ae44bacb4351a4948e761ee08e278d5278f63f8c48ec41ef7870baaccbb4194 SHA512 5d8f00321b4314dbfd0409ba1533b35b337838b18e2efa37ef4ce8c406cea3f6fee3655a20d44a0007248ac58173cb60672324a553593a8b70dc5ecc17d8ac4e
+DIST rapidfuzz-3.12.1.tar.gz 57907552 BLAKE2B 6a64f05e2a7275a43b827c027ea45728c7718542d769f7eff302ad991afec10559d560a01de1340e518a57528b8c954c642e99e385a5652b990e0aa91a33c335 SHA512 71b0de7ea5aafa30b3976a5424de57398ae9a116b9d36c15595d5998d803b553a3008f82903b74febd2520abcb2de07a58b00cd754263db6d5544ee64a5018eb
diff --git a/dev-python/rapidfuzz/rapidfuzz-3.12.1.ebuild b/dev-python/rapidfuzz/rapidfuzz-3.12.1.ebuild
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..7c533ee3314e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-python/rapidfuzz/rapidfuzz-3.12.1.ebuild
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# Copyright 2022-2025 Gentoo Authors
+# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
+
+EAPI=8
+
+DISTUTILS_EXT=1
+DISTUTILS_USE_PEP517=scikit-build-core
+PYPI_PN=RapidFuzz
+PYTHON_COMPAT=( pypy3 python3_{10..13} )
+
+inherit distutils-r1 pypi
+
+DESCRIPTION="Rapid fuzzy string matching in Python using various string metrics"
+HOMEPAGE="
+	https://github.com/rapidfuzz/RapidFuzz/
+	https://pypi.org/project/RapidFuzz/
+"
+
+LICENSE="MIT"
+SLOT="0"
+KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~arm ~arm64 ~hppa ~loong ~mips ~ppc ~ppc64 ~riscv ~s390 ~sparc ~x86"
+
+# all these are header-only libraries
+DEPEND="
+	>=dev-cpp/taskflow-3.0.0
+	>=dev-cpp/rapidfuzz-cpp-3.2.0
+	dev-python/numpy[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+"
+BDEPEND="
+	>=dev-python/cython-3[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+	test? (
+		dev-python/hypothesis[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+	)
+"
+
+EPYTEST_XDIST=1
+distutils_enable_tests pytest
+
+src_prepare() {
+	# sterilize build flags
+	sed -i -e '/CMAKE_INTERPROCEDURAL_OPTIMIZATION/d' CMakeLists.txt || die
+	# remove bundled libraries
+	rm -r extern || die
+	# force recythonization
+	find src -name '*.cxx' -delete || die
+	# do not require exact taskflow version
+	sed -i -e '/Taskflow/s:3\.9\.0::' CMakeLists.txt || die
+	# https://github.com/scikit-build/scikit-build-core/issues/912
+	sed -i -e '/scikit-build-core/s:0\.10:0.8:' pyproject.toml || die
+
+	distutils-r1_src_prepare
+
+	export RAPIDFUZZ_BUILD_EXTENSION=1
+}
+
+python_test() {
+	local -x PYTEST_DISABLE_PLUGIN_AUTOLOAD=1
+	epytest
+}