Using initialValueTemplates to reference parent document fields

Good news! Yes, you can absolutely fetch the parent document's values within your initial value template. Your solution using context.getClient() is exactly the right approach.

Based on the official Initial Value Templates documentation, when you define a template in schema.templates, the value function receives two parameters:

1. params - containing any parameters you pass (like your parentId)
2. context - which includes helpful utilities like getClient, currentUser, schema, dataset, and projectId

Here's how to fetch parent document fields and use them in your new document:

// sanity.config.ts
import {defineConfig} from 'sanity'

export default defineConfig({
  // ...rest of config
  schema: {
    templates: (prev, context) => [
      ...prev,
      {
        id: 'child-with-parent-specs',
        title: 'Child Document',
        schemaType: 'childDocument',
        parameters: [{name: 'parentId', type: 'string'}],
        value: async (params, context) => {
          // Get a Sanity client from the context
          const client = context.getClient({apiVersion: '2024-11-01'})
          
          // Fetch the parent document with its specifications field
          const parentDoc = await client.fetch(
            `*[_id == $parentId][0]{
              _id,
              specifications
            }`,
            {parentId: params.parentId}
          )
          
          // Return initial values for the new document
          return {
            parent: {
              _type: 'reference',
              _ref: params.parentId
            },
            specifications: parentDoc?.specifications || []
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
})

The key points:

1. Make the value function async so you can await the fetch operation
2. Use context.getClient() to get a configured Sanity client - this is available in the context parameter
3. Query with GROQ to fetch exactly the fields you need from the parent document
4. Handle reference arrays - if specifications is a ref array, the references will be copied as-is with their _ref values intact

Your solution from the Sanity Answers thread demonstrates this perfectly! If you need to transform the references (like mapping them to a different structure), you can use .map() as you showed:

characteristics: category.characteristics.map((c: any) => ({
  _type: 'partCharacteristic', 
  characteristic: {_type: 'reference', _ref: c._ref}
}))

This pattern works great when combined with Structure Builder for creating contextual document creation flows where child documents inherit properties from their parent. Just use .initialValueTemplates() in your structure definition to specify which template should be used in that context, passing the necessary parameters like parentId.