diff --git a/packages/api/src/cli/codegen/language.ts b/packages/api/src/cli/codegen/language.ts
index bc3f667d..314334ac 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/cli/codegen/language.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/cli/codegen/language.ts
@@ -25,11 +25,12 @@ export default abstract class CodeGeneratorLanguage {
 
   userAgent: string;
 
-  requiredPackages: Record<string, { reason: string; url: string }>;
+  requiredPackages!: Record<string, { reason: string; url: string }>;
 
   constructor(spec: Oas, specPath: string, identifier: string) {
     this.spec = spec;
     this.specPath = specPath;
+    this.identifier = identifier;
 
     // User agents should be contextual to the spec in question and the version of `api` that was
     // used to generate the SDK. For example, this'll look like `petstore/1.0.0 (api/4.2.0)` for
diff --git a/packages/api/src/cli/codegen/languages/typescript.ts b/packages/api/src/cli/codegen/languages/typescript.ts
index c3f1ea1e..d784b887 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/cli/codegen/languages/typescript.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/cli/codegen/languages/typescript.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import type { InstallerOptions } from '../language';
 import type Oas from 'oas';
 import type { Operation } from 'oas';
 import type { HttpMethods, SchemaObject } from 'oas/dist/rmoas.types';
+import type { SemVer } from 'semver';
 import type {
   ClassDeclaration,
   JSDocStructure,
@@ -53,9 +54,9 @@ export default class TSGenerator extends CodeGeneratorLanguage {
 
   types: Map<string, string>;
 
-  files: Record<string, string>;
+  files?: Record<string, string>;
 
-  sdk: ClassDeclaration;
+  sdk!: ClassDeclaration;
 
   schemas: Record<
     string,
@@ -138,7 +139,7 @@ export default class TSGenerator extends CodeGeneratorLanguage {
     if (!pkgVersion) {
       // If the version that's in `info.version` isn't compatible with semver NPM won't be able to
       // handle it properly so we need to fallback to something it can.
-      pkgVersion = semver.coerce('0.0.0');
+      pkgVersion = semver.coerce('0.0.0') as SemVer;
     }
 
     const pkg: PackageJson = {
@@ -221,7 +222,7 @@ export default class TSGenerator extends CodeGeneratorLanguage {
       sdkSource
         .getImportDeclarations()
         .find(id => id.getText() === "import type * as types from './types';")
-        .remove();
+        ?.remove();
     }
 
     // If this SDK doesn't use the `HTTPMethodRange` interface for handling `2XX` response status
@@ -230,7 +231,7 @@ export default class TSGenerator extends CodeGeneratorLanguage {
       sdkSource
         .getImportDeclarations()
         .find(id => id.getText().includes('HTTPMethodRange'))
-        .replaceWithText("import type { ConfigOptions, FetchResponse } from '@api/core'");
+        ?.replaceWithText("import type { ConfigOptions, FetchResponse } from '@api/core'");
     }
 
     if (this.outputJS) {
@@ -656,7 +657,7 @@ sdk.server('https://eu.api.example.com/v14');`),
       // we should only add a docblock to the first overload we create because IDE Intellisense will
       // always use that and adding a docblock to all three will bloat the SDK with unused and
       // unsurfaced method documentation.
-      docs: shouldAddAltTypedOverloads ? null : Object.keys(docblock).length ? [docblock] : null,
+      docs: shouldAddAltTypedOverloads ? undefined : Object.keys(docblock).length ? [docblock] : undefined,
       statements: writer => {
         /**
          * @example return this.core.fetch('/pet/findByStatus', 'get', body, metadata);
@@ -698,7 +699,7 @@ sdk.server('https://eu.api.example.com/v14');`),
           { ...parameters.metadata, hasQuestionToken: false },
         ],
         returnType,
-        docs: Object.keys(docblock).length ? [docblock] : null,
+        docs: Object.keys(docblock).length ? [docblock] : undefined,
       });
 
       // Create an overload that just has a single `metadata` parameter.
@@ -739,13 +740,13 @@ sdk.server('https://eu.api.example.com/v14');`),
    */
   loadOperationsAndMethods() {
     const operations: Record</* operationId */ string, OperationTypeHousing> = {};
-    const methods = new Set();
+    const methods = new Set<HttpMethods>();
 
     // Prepare all of the schemas that we need to process for every operation within this API
     // definition.
     Object.entries(this.spec.getPaths()).forEach(([, ops]) => {
-      Object.entries(ops).forEach(([method, operation]: [HttpMethods, Operation]) => {
-        methods.add(method);
+      Object.entries(ops).forEach(([method, operation]: [string, Operation]) => {
+        methods.add(method as HttpMethods);
 
         const operationId = operation.getOperationId({
           // This `camelCase` option will clean up any weird characters that might be present in
@@ -786,7 +787,7 @@ sdk.server('https://eu.api.example.com/v14');`),
       transformer: (s: SchemaObject) => {
         // As our schemas are dereferenced in the `oas` library we don't want to pollute our
         // codegen'd schemas file with duplicate schemas.
-        if ('x-readme-ref-name' in s) {
+        if ('x-readme-ref-name' in s && typeof s['x-readme-ref-name'] !== 'undefined') {
           const typeName = generateTypeName(s['x-readme-ref-name']);
           this.addSchemaToExport(s, typeName, typeName);
 
@@ -844,7 +845,7 @@ sdk.server('https://eu.api.example.com/v14');`),
           transformer: (s: SchemaObject) => {
             // As our schemas are dereferenced in the `oas` library we don't want to pollute our
             // codegen'd schemas file with duplicate schemas.
-            if ('x-readme-ref-name' in s) {
+            if ('x-readme-ref-name' in s && typeof s['x-readme-ref-name'] !== 'undefined') {
               const typeName = generateTypeName(s['x-readme-ref-name']);
               this.addSchemaToExport(s, typeName, `${typeName}`);
 
diff --git a/packages/api/src/cli/fetcher.ts b/packages/api/src/cli/fetcher.ts
index 1f189c3b..cd5d6040 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/cli/fetcher.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/cli/fetcher.ts
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ export default class Fetcher {
       return undefined;
     }
 
-    return matches.groups.project;
+    return matches.groups?.project;
   }
 
   async load() {
diff --git a/packages/api/src/cli/storage.ts b/packages/api/src/cli/storage.ts
index 55f0a882..d2b11b85 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/cli/storage.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/cli/storage.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ export default class Storage {
    */
   source: string;
 
-  identifier: string;
+  identifier!: string;
 
   fetcher: Fetcher;
 
@@ -32,7 +32,9 @@ export default class Storage {
     this.fetcher = new Fetcher(source);
 
     this.source = source;
-    this.identifier = identifier;
+    if (identifier) {
+      this.identifier = identifier;
+    }
 
     // This should default to false so we have awareness if we've looked at the lockfile yet.
     Storage.lockfile = false;
@@ -117,7 +119,9 @@ export default class Storage {
     if (!isValidForNPM.validForNewPackages) {
       // `prompts` doesn't support surfacing multiple errors in a `validate` call so we can only
       // surface the first to the user.
-      throw new Error(`Identifier cannot be used for an NPM package: ${isValidForNPM.errors[0]}`);
+      throw new Error(
+        `Identifier cannot be used for an NPM package: ${isValidForNPM?.errors?.[0] || '[error unavailable]'}`,
+      );
     }
 
     return true;
diff --git a/packages/api/tsconfig.json b/packages/api/tsconfig.json
index c04ee9df..62023664 100644
--- a/packages/api/tsconfig.json
+++ b/packages/api/tsconfig.json
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@
     "esModuleInterop": true,
     "lib": ["DOM", "DOM.Iterable", "ES2020"],
     "noImplicitAny": true,
-    "outDir": "dist/"
+    "outDir": "dist/",
+    "strict": true,
+    "useUnknownInCatchVariables": false
   },
   "include": ["./src/**/*"]
 }
diff --git a/packages/core/src/index.ts b/packages/core/src/index.ts
index 30d15a53..e7dd1429 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/index.ts
@@ -37,24 +37,24 @@ export type HTTPMethodRange<F extends number, T extends number> = Exclude<Enumer
 export { getJSONSchemaDefaults, parseResponse, prepareAuth, prepareParams, prepareServer };
 
 export default class APICore {
-  spec: Oas;
+  spec!: Oas;
 
   private auth: (number | string)[] = [];
 
   private server:
     | false
     | {
-        url?: string;
+        url: string;
         variables?: Record<string, string | number>;
       } = false;
 
   private config: ConfigOptions = {};
 
-  private userAgent: string;
+  private userAgent!: string;
 
   constructor(spec?: Oas, userAgent?: string) {
-    this.spec = spec;
-    this.userAgent = userAgent;
+    if (spec) this.spec = spec;
+    if (userAgent) this.userAgent = userAgent;
   }
 
   setSpec(spec: Oas) {
diff --git a/packages/core/src/lib/getJSONSchemaDefaults.ts b/packages/core/src/lib/getJSONSchemaDefaults.ts
index 0c7cd5d4..cffc20dc 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/lib/getJSONSchemaDefaults.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/lib/getJSONSchemaDefaults.ts
@@ -23,16 +23,16 @@ export default function getJSONSchemaDefaults(jsonSchemas: SchemaWrapper[]) {
           schema: SchemaObject,
           pointer: string,
           rootSchema: SchemaObject,
-          parentPointer: string,
-          parentKeyword: string,
-          parentSchema: SchemaObject,
-          indexProperty: string,
+          parentPointer?: string,
+          parentKeyword?: string,
+          parentSchema?: SchemaObject,
+          indexProperty?: string | number,
         ) => {
           if (!pointer.startsWith('/properties/')) {
             return;
           }
 
-          if (Array.isArray(parentSchema?.required) && parentSchema.required.includes(indexProperty)) {
+          if (Array.isArray(parentSchema?.required) && parentSchema?.required.includes(String(indexProperty))) {
             if (schema.type === 'object' && indexProperty) {
               defaults[indexProperty] = {};
             }
diff --git a/packages/core/src/lib/prepareAuth.ts b/packages/core/src/lib/prepareAuth.ts
index 5f00ca66..6843e896 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/lib/prepareAuth.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/lib/prepareAuth.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 /* eslint-disable no-underscore-dangle */
 import type { Operation } from 'oas';
+import type { KeyedSecuritySchemeObject } from 'oas/dist/rmoas.types';
 
 export default function prepareAuth(authKey: (number | string)[], operation: Operation) {
   if (authKey.length === 0) {
@@ -58,7 +59,7 @@ export default function prepareAuth(authKey: (number | string)[], operation: Ope
       );
     }
 
-    const scheme = schemes.shift();
+    const scheme = schemes.shift() as KeyedSecuritySchemeObject;
     preparedAuth[scheme._key] = {
       user: authKey[0],
       pass: authKey.length === 2 ? authKey[1] : '',
@@ -76,7 +77,7 @@ export default function prepareAuth(authKey: (number | string)[], operation: Ope
     .map(([, ps]) => ps.filter(s => usableScheme === s._key))
     .reduce((prev, next) => prev.concat(next), []);
 
-  const scheme = schemes.shift();
+  const scheme = schemes.shift() as KeyedSecuritySchemeObject;
   switch (scheme.type) {
     case 'http':
       if (scheme.scheme === 'basic') {
diff --git a/packages/core/src/lib/prepareParams.ts b/packages/core/src/lib/prepareParams.ts
index 13f54fad..2e9a72d8 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/lib/prepareParams.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/lib/prepareParams.ts
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ function digestParameters(parameters: ParameterObject[]): Record<string, Paramet
 
 // https://github.com/you-dont-need/You-Dont-Need-Lodash-Underscore#_isempty
 function isEmpty(obj: any) {
-  return [Object, Array].includes((obj || {}).constructor) && !Object.entries(obj || {}).length;
+  return [Object, Array].includes((obj || {}).constructor) && !Object.entries(obj || {}).length && obj !== null;
 }
 
 function isObject(thing: any) {
@@ -74,9 +74,9 @@ function merge(src: any, target: any) {
  *
  */
 function processFile(
-  paramName: string,
+  paramName: string | undefined,
   file: string | ReadStream,
-): Promise<{ base64: string; buffer: Buffer; filename: string; paramName: string }> {
+): Promise<{ base64?: string; buffer?: Buffer; filename: string; paramName?: string } | undefined> {
   if (typeof file === 'string') {
     // In order to support relative pathed files, we need to attempt to resolve them.
     const resolvedFile = path.resolve(file);
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ function processFile(
 
         return resolve({
           paramName,
-          base64: fileMetadata.content.replace(';base64', `;name=${payloadFilename};base64`),
+          base64: fileMetadata?.content?.replace(';base64', `;name=${payloadFilename};base64`),
           filename: payloadFilename,
           buffer: fileMetadata.buffer,
         });
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ function processFile(
 
       return {
         paramName,
-        base64: base64.replace(';base64', `;name=${payloadFilename};base64`),
+        base64: base64?.replace(';base64', `;name=${payloadFilename};base64`),
         filename: payloadFilename,
         buffer,
       };
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ export default async function prepareParams(operation: Operation, body?: unknown
         }
       });
 
-      const intersection = Object.keys(body).filter(value => {
+      const intersection = Object.keys(body as NonNullable<unknown>).filter(value => {
         if (Object.keys(digestedParameters).includes(value)) {
           return true;
         } else if (headerParams.has(value)) {
@@ -238,10 +238,10 @@ export default async function prepareParams(operation: Operation, body?: unknown
         return false;
       }).length;
 
-      if (intersection && intersection / Object.keys(body).length > 0.25) {
+      // If more than 25% of the body intersects with the parameters that we've got on hand, then
+      // we should treat it as a metadata object and organize into parameters.
+      if (intersection && intersection / Object.keys(body as NonNullable<unknown>).length > 0.25) {
         /* eslint-disable no-param-reassign */
-        // If more than 25% of the body intersects with the parameters that we've got on hand,
-        // then we should treat it as a metadata object and organize into parameters.
         metadataIntersected = true;
         metadata = merge(params.body, body) as Record<string, unknown>;
         body = undefined;
@@ -304,7 +304,9 @@ export default async function prepareParams(operation: Operation, body?: unknown
               params.body = fileMetadata.base64;
             }
 
-            params.files[fileMetadata.filename] = fileMetadata.buffer;
+            if (fileMetadata.buffer && params?.files) {
+              params.files[fileMetadata.filename] = fileMetadata.buffer;
+            }
           });
         });
     }
@@ -336,7 +338,7 @@ export default async function prepareParams(operation: Operation, body?: unknown
         } else if (param.in === 'header') {
           // Headers are sent case-insensitive so we need to make sure that we're properly
           // matching them when detecting what our incoming payload looks like.
-          metadataHeaderParam = Object.keys(metadata).find(k => k.toLowerCase() === paramName.toLowerCase());
+          metadataHeaderParam = Object.keys(metadata).find(k => k.toLowerCase() === paramName.toLowerCase()) || '';
           value = metadata[metadataHeaderParam];
         }
       }
@@ -348,20 +350,20 @@ export default async function prepareParams(operation: Operation, body?: unknown
       /* eslint-disable no-param-reassign */
       switch (param.in) {
         case 'path':
-          params.path[paramName] = value;
-          delete metadata[paramName];
+          (params.path as NonNullable<typeof params.path>)[paramName] = value;
+          if (metadata?.[paramName]) delete metadata[paramName];
           break;
         case 'query':
-          params.query[paramName] = value;
-          delete metadata[paramName];
+          (params.query as NonNullable<typeof params.query>)[paramName] = value;
+          if (metadata?.[paramName]) delete metadata[paramName];
           break;
         case 'header':
-          params.header[paramName.toLowerCase()] = value;
-          delete metadata[metadataHeaderParam];
+          (params.header as NonNullable<typeof params.header>)[paramName.toLowerCase()] = value;
+          if (metadataHeaderParam && metadata?.[metadataHeaderParam]) delete metadata[metadataHeaderParam];
           break;
         case 'cookie':
-          params.cookie[paramName] = value;
-          delete metadata[paramName];
+          (params.cookie as NonNullable<typeof params.cookie>)[paramName] = value;
+          if (metadata?.[paramName]) delete metadata[paramName];
           break;
         default: // no-op
       }
@@ -387,11 +389,17 @@ export default async function prepareParams(operation: Operation, body?: unknown
         // or specify a custom auth header (maybe we can't handle their auth case right) this is the
         // only way with this library that they can do that.
         specialHeaders.forEach(headerName => {
-          const headerParam = Object.keys(metadata).find(m => m.toLowerCase() === headerName);
+          const headerParam = Object.keys(metadata || {}).find(m => m.toLowerCase() === headerName);
           if (headerParam) {
-            params.header[headerName] = metadata[headerParam] as string;
-            // eslint-disable-next-line no-param-reassign
-            delete metadata[headerParam];
+            // this if-statement below is a typeguard
+            if (typeof metadata === 'object') {
+              // this if-statement below is a typeguard
+              if (typeof params.header === 'object') {
+                params.header[headerName] = metadata[headerParam] as string;
+              }
+              // eslint-disable-next-line no-param-reassign
+              delete metadata[headerParam];
+            }
           }
         });
       }
@@ -405,7 +413,7 @@ export default async function prepareParams(operation: Operation, body?: unknown
     }
   }
 
-  ['body', 'cookie', 'files', 'formData', 'header', 'path', 'query'].forEach((type: keyof typeof params) => {
+  (['body', 'cookie', 'files', 'formData', 'header', 'path', 'query'] as const).forEach((type: keyof typeof params) => {
     if (type in params && isEmpty(params[type])) {
       delete params[type];
     }
diff --git a/packages/core/tsconfig.json b/packages/core/tsconfig.json
index 5acf6120..4f40fdab 100644
--- a/packages/core/tsconfig.json
+++ b/packages/core/tsconfig.json
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
     "lib": ["DOM", "DOM.Iterable", "ES2020"],
     "noImplicitAny": true,
     "outDir": "dist/",
-    "strict": false
+    "strict": true
   },
   "include": ["./src/**/*"]
 }