I see what you mean. I guess unknown just doesn't work that well with inline type checks for objects, although in that case you probably want a function anyways

I see what you mean. I guess unknown just doesn't work that well with inline type checks for objects, although in that case you probably want a function anyways. Using the `in` return type you can do something like this: const out: unknown = JSON.parse("{a: 1}"); interface MyStructure { a: number; } function isMyStructure(toCheck: unknown): toCheck is MyStructure { return toCheck instanceof Object && 'a' in toCheck; } if (isMyStructure(out)) { console.log(out.a); } This will give you no type errors, and gives you the benefit of having a re-usable function for this validation. I just discovered this today. I seem to have missed it in a recent release note.