Before You File a Proposal Please Confirm You Have Done The Following...

• I have searched for related issues and found none that match my proposal.
• I have searched the current rule list and found no rules that match my proposal.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem is not listed.

My proposal is suitable for this project

• My proposal specifically checks TypeScript syntax, or it proposes a check that requires type information to be accurate.
• My proposal is not a "formatting rule"; meaning it does not just enforce how code is formatted (whitespace, brace placement, etc).
• I believe my proposal would be useful to the broader TypeScript community (meaning it is not a niche proposal).

Description

TS 5.5 introduced Inferred Type Predicates.
TS will try to infer a predicate return type if:

• The function does not have an explicit return type or type predicate annotation.
• The function has a single return statement and no implicit returns.
• The function does not mutate its parameter.
• The function returns a boolean expression that’s tied to a refinement on the parameter.

The first point is the kicker -- a lot of people (us included) annotate return types explicitly.
Or they'll annotate their own predicates.

We should introduce a rule that warns if:

• the function matches the other 3 conditions
• the function has an explicit return type

This would allow people to lean on TS's inference for much safer code -- explicit type predicates are horridly unsound! TS only enforces that the predicate is assignable to the variable's original type -- not that the predicate is correct.

For example this code is TS valid but it is WILDLY incorrect and will crash at runtime:

const x = [1, 2, null].filter((x): x is number => x == null);

Fail Cases

const x = [1, 2, null].filter((x): boolean => x != null);

Pass Cases

const x = [1, 2, null].filter(x => x != null);

// perhaps configurable to allow this?
// by default inferring the predicate would probably be better as it's more type safe
const x = [1, 2, null].filter((x): x is NonNullable<typeof x> => x != null);

Additional Info

No response