How do I tell if an object is a Promise?

How a promise library decides

If it has a .then function - that's the only standard promise libraries use.

The Promises/A+ specification has a notion called thenable which is basically "an object with a then method". Promises will and should assimilate anything with a then method. All of the promise implementation you've mentioned do this.

If we look at the specification:

2.3.3.3 if then is a function, call it with x as this, first argument resolvePromise, and second argument rejectPromise

It also explains the rationale for this design decision:

This treatment of thenables allows promise implementations to interoperate, as long as they expose a Promises/A+-compliant then method. It also allows Promises/A+ implementations to “assimilate” nonconformant implementations with reasonable then methods.

How you should decide

You shouldn't - instead call Promise.resolve(x) (Q(x) in Q) that will always convert any value or external thenable into a trusted promise. It is safer and easier than performing these checks yourself.

really need to be sure?

You can always run it through the test suite :D

Checking if something is promise unnecessarily complicates the code, just use Promise.resolve

Promise.resolve(valueOrPromiseItDoesntMatter).then(function(value) {

})

Here's my original answer, which has since been ratified in the spec as the way to test for a promise:

Promise.resolve(obj) == obj

This works because the algorithm explicitly demands that Promise.resolve must return the exact object passed in if and only if it is a promise by the definition of the spec.

I have another answer here, which used to say this, but I changed it to something else when it didn't work with Safari at that time. That was a year ago, and this now works reliably even in Safari.

I would have edited my original answer, except that felt wrong, given that more people by now have voted for the altered solution in that answer than the original. I believe this is the better answer, and I hope you agree.