GROQ: Resolve array references while keeping _key property

Perfect! I found exactly what you need. When you use the -> operator to dereference, it strips out the _key property, but there's a clean way to preserve it.

You can explicitly include the _key in your projection while spreading the dereferenced content:

*[_id == $id]{
  items[]{
    _key,
    ...(@->)
  }
}

This pattern works by:

1. items[] - iterates over each item in the array
2. _key - explicitly includes the key property
3. ...(@->) - spreads all properties from the dereferenced document (the @ refers to the current item being iterated)

So if your referenced documents have properties like title and description, your result would look like:

[
  {
    "items": [
      {
        "_key": "1acc50cf5ffc",
        "title": "First Item",
        "description": "..."
      },
      {
        "_key": "be9bad61ab5e",
        "title": "Second Item",
        "description": "..."
      }
    ]
  }
]

This is the recommended approach for preserving _key during dereferencing, and it's especially useful when you need those keys as React key props when rendering lists!