diff --git a/.changeset/strict-client-preset.md b/.changeset/strict-client-preset.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..71eaaad8c71
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/strict-client-preset.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@graphql-codegen/client-preset': patch
+---
+
+Fix type errors under `strict: true`. The preset now throws a clear error when `schemaAst` is missing from the preset options, and the babel plugin throws when a file has no filename. Both cases used to crash later with a less clear error. Generated output is unchanged.
diff --git a/packages/presets/client/src/babel.ts b/packages/presets/client/src/babel.ts
index f47c4bc86f5..f78ee80349f 100644
--- a/packages/presets/client/src/babel.ts
+++ b/packages/presets/client/src/babel.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,8 @@
 import * as path from 'path';
 import { buildSchema, parse } from 'graphql';
-import type { PluginObj, PluginPass } from '@babel/core';
+import type { NodePath, PluginObj, PluginPass } from '@babel/core';
 import { declare } from '@babel/helper-plugin-utils';
 import template from '@babel/template';
-import type { NodePath } from '@babel/traverse';
 import type { Program } from '@babel/types';
 import { ClientSideBaseVisitor } from '@graphql-codegen/visitor-plugin-common';
 
@@ -82,12 +81,11 @@ function getRelativeImportPath(
   artifactDirectory: string,
   fileToRequire = 'graphql',
 ): string {
-  if (state.file == null) {
+  const filename = state.file?.opts.filename;
+  if (!filename) {
     throw new Error('Babel state is missing expected file name');
   }
 
-  const { filename } = state.file.opts;
-
   const relative = path.relative(path.dirname(filename), path.resolve(artifactDirectory));
 
   const relativeReference = relative.length === 0 || !relative.startsWith('.') ? './' : '';
diff --git a/packages/presets/client/src/fragment-masking-plugin.ts b/packages/presets/client/src/fragment-masking-plugin.ts
index e9044330738..0b3ff6463fe 100644
--- a/packages/presets/client/src/fragment-masking-plugin.ts
+++ b/packages/presets/client/src/fragment-masking-plugin.ts
@@ -146,7 +146,7 @@ export const plugin: PluginFunction<{
     unmaskFunctionName,
     emitLegacyCommonJSImports,
     importExtension,
-    isStringDocumentMode,
+    isStringDocumentMode = false,
   },
   _info,
 ) => {
diff --git a/packages/presets/client/src/index.ts b/packages/presets/client/src/index.ts
index 9ca459ee356..11f8752d8e0 100644
--- a/packages/presets/client/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/presets/client/src/index.ts
@@ -144,9 +144,13 @@ export const preset: Types.OutputPreset<ClientPresetConfig> = {
         '[client-preset] providing typescript-based `plugins` with `preset: "client" leads to duplicated generated types',
       );
     }
+    if (!options.schemaAst) {
+      throw new Error('[client-preset] missing `schemaAst` in preset options');
+    }
+
     const isPersistedOperations = !!options.presetConfig?.persistedDocuments;
     if (options.config.nullability?.errorHandlingClient) {
-      options.schemaAst = await semanticToStrict(options.schemaAst!);
+      options.schemaAst = await semanticToStrict(options.schemaAst);
       options.schema = parse(printSchema(options.schemaAst));
     }
 
@@ -282,7 +286,7 @@ export const preset: Types.OutputPreset<ClientPresetConfig> = {
       importExtension: options.config.importExtension,
     });
 
-    if (isMaskingFragments === true) {
+    if (fragmentMaskingConfig !== null) {
       const fragmentMaskingArtifactFileExtension = '.ts';
 
       reexports.push('fragment-masking');
diff --git a/packages/presets/client/src/persisted-documents.ts b/packages/presets/client/src/persisted-documents.ts
index 356fb02d6de..49840d2e406 100644
--- a/packages/presets/client/src/persisted-documents.ts
+++ b/packages/presets/client/src/persisted-documents.ts
@@ -41,21 +41,25 @@ export function normalizeAndPrintDocumentNode(documentNode: DocumentNode): strin
       if (field.directives?.some(directive => directive.name.value === CLIENT_DIRECTIVE_NAME)) {
         return null;
       }
+      return;
     },
     [Kind.FRAGMENT_SPREAD](spread) {
       if (spread.directives?.some(directive => directive.name.value === CLIENT_DIRECTIVE_NAME)) {
         return null;
       }
+      return;
     },
     [Kind.INLINE_FRAGMENT](fragment) {
       if (fragment.directives?.some(directive => directive.name.value === CLIENT_DIRECTIVE_NAME)) {
         return null;
       }
+      return;
     },
     [Kind.DIRECTIVE](directive) {
       if (directive.name.value === CONNECTION_DIRECTIVE_NAME) {
         return null;
       }
+      return;
     },
   });
 
diff --git a/packages/presets/client/src/process-sources.ts b/packages/presets/client/src/process-sources.ts
index c9b8e41b792..bcbb3460966 100644
--- a/packages/presets/client/src/process-sources.ts
+++ b/packages/presets/client/src/process-sources.ts
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ export function processSources(
 function fixLinebreaks(source: Types.DocumentFile) {
   const fixedSource = { ...source };
 
-  fixedSource.rawSDL = source.rawSDL.replace(/\r\n/g, '\n');
+  fixedSource.rawSDL = source.rawSDL?.replace(/\r\n/g, '\n');
 
   return fixedSource;
 }