Index: flexoentity/id_factory.py
===================================================================
--- flexoentity/id_factory.py	(revision 3d65ce558574c4b5d04adc7950394c163bb96fcf)
+++ flexoentity/id_factory.py	(revision 859e2b15bed84f745ac19e8a3a688bf73c5999e9)
@@ -49,4 +49,9 @@
 
     @classmethod
+    def from_string(cls, id_str: str):
+        # reconstruct without a known signature
+        return cls(id_str, signature="")
+
+    @classmethod
     def from_oid_and_version(cls, oid, version: int):
         if not (1 <= version <= cls.MAX_VERSION):
@@ -214,6 +219,2 @@
         return f"<FlexOID {self.flexo_id} sig={self.signature[:8]}…>"
 
-    @classmethod
-    def from_str(cls, id_str: str):
-        # reconstruct without a known signature
-        return cls(id_str, signature="")