diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8883ce517da7..e8633e23c95b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,13 @@
 
 - No longer provide mypyc-accelerated wheels for macOS x86_64 [mypyc-wheels #119](https://github.com/mypyc/mypy_mypyc-wheels/pull/119)
 
+### Bug Fixes
+
+- The native parser no longer crashes with a traceback when checking a file
+  that is not valid UTF-8 (for example, a file with a PEP 263
+  ``# coding: latin-1`` declaration); a clean error message is reported
+  instead. (PR by @inchang-ing)
+
 ## Mypy 2.3
 
 We've just uploaded mypy 2.3.0 to the Python Package Index ([PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/mypy/)).
diff --git a/mypy/build.py b/mypy/build.py
index a55fe4eb92d5..089ecd6b5c82 100644
--- a/mypy/build.py
+++ b/mypy/build.py
@@ -3231,9 +3231,20 @@ def get_source(self) -> str:
 
     def parse_file_inner(self, source: str | None, raw_data: FileRawData | None = None) -> None:
         t0 = time_ref()
-        self.tree = self.manager.parse_file(
-            self.id, self.xpath, source, options=self.options, raw_data=raw_data
-        )
+        try:
+            self.tree = self.manager.parse_file(
+                self.id, self.xpath, source, options=self.options, raw_data=raw_data
+            )
+        except ValueError as decodeerr:
+            # The native parser reads files as UTF-8 and does not support PEP 263
+            # 'coding' declarations; surface a user-facing error instead of
+            # crashing (see issue #22055).
+            err = (
+                f"{self.path}: error: Cannot decode file: {decodeerr}. Note: the native "
+                "parser requires files to be valid UTF-8 and does not support PEP 263 "
+                "'coding' declarations."
+            )
+            raise CompileError([err], module_with_blocker=self.id) from decodeerr
         self.time_spent_us += time_spent_us(t0)
 
     def parse_file(self, *, temporary: bool = False, raw_data: FileRawData | None = None) -> None:
diff --git a/mypy/test/testapi.py b/mypy/test/testapi.py
index 95bd95ece785..3e0e14ab718b 100644
--- a/mypy/test/testapi.py
+++ b/mypy/test/testapi.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import os
 import sys
+import tempfile
 from io import StringIO
 
 import mypy.api
@@ -43,3 +45,21 @@ def test_capture_version(self) -> None:
         stdout, _, _ = mypy.api.run(["--version"])
         assert isinstance(stdout, str)
         assert stdout != ""
+
+    def test_decode_error_is_reported_not_raised(self) -> None:
+        """A file that is not valid UTF-8 produces an error, not a crash.
+
+        The native parser reads files as UTF-8 and does not support PEP 263
+        'coding' declarations (issue #22055).
+        """
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp_dir:
+            file_path = os.path.join(tmp_dir, "latin1.py")
+            # "s = 'café'" encoded as latin-1: invalid UTF-8 bytes.
+            with open(file_path, "wb") as f:
+                f.write(b"s = 'caf\xe9'\n")
+
+            stdout, stderr, status = mypy.api.run(["--cache-dir", os.devnull, file_path])
+        assert "Cannot decode file" in stderr
+        assert "did not contain valid UTF-8" in stderr
+        assert "errors prevented further checking" in stdout
+        assert status == 2