Query with nested reference works in Vision but returns zero results in Sanity client

This is a classic perspective mismatch between Vision and your client! The issue is that Vision and your Sanity client are likely using different default perspectives.

The Root Cause

Vision uses the raw perspective by default, which returns ALL documents including both drafts (with drafts. prefix) and published documents. However, as of the API version 2025-02-19, the Sanity client now defaults to the published perspective, which only returns published documents without the drafts. prefix.

When your nested query *[_type == "generalSettings" && upper(market) == upper($market)][0].home->_id runs in Vision, it might be finding a draft version of your generalSettings document (like drafts.generalSettings-123). But when the same query runs through your client with the published perspective, that draft doesn't exist, so the nested query returns nothing, and your comparison fails.

The Solution

You have a few options to fix this:

1. Set your client to use previewDrafts perspective (recommended for preview/development):

import {createClient} from '@sanity/client'

const client = createClient({
  projectId: 'your-project-id',
  dataset: 'your-dataset',
  perspective: 'previewDrafts', // This prioritizes drafts over published
  useCdn: false, // CDN doesn't support drafts
  apiVersion: '2025-02-19'
})

2. Use the raw perspective (if you need to see everything):

const client = createClient({
  // ... other config
  perspective: 'raw',
  useCdn: false
})

3. Ensure your documents are published - If this is for production, make sure both your page and generalSettings documents are actually published (not just drafts).

Understanding the Behavior

The perspectives feature provides different views of your content:

• raw - Returns all documents (drafts and published)
• published - Returns only published documents
• previewDrafts - Prioritizes drafts when they exist, falls back to published

When you dereference with ->, it respects the current perspective. So if you're in published perspective and reference a draft-only document, the dereference returns null, breaking your _id comparison.

Quick Debug Check

To verify this is the issue, temporarily set perspective: 'raw' in your client config. If your query suddenly works, you've confirmed the perspective mismatch!