Fiddling with your research doc I found out about the $$ operator used to create references.
E.g. $$[cell:grid-ahmvaWqCgY:c-ni32haMaa_:i-pHC2juX1xr:false:false:Value]
Syntax goes [<type>:<tableId>:<columnId>:<rowId>:<bool>:<bool>:<displayName>]. Some params can be omitted depending on type. Not sure what the bools are for either.
Types are (click to see)
"canvas";
"cell";
"column";
"controlGrid";
"document";
"grid";
"row";
"rowColumn";
"variable";
"table";
"constraint";
"linkedColumnFormula";
"image";
"volatileFunction";
"fakeReference";
"documentObjectsReference";
"packReference";
"packConnectionReference"
You can also type $$[] anywhere in a formula to break down all references in it.
Still, haven’t found a practical use for it. Since it’s not a string and it needs to be typed, I guess a first step would be using your ParseJSON method to create the object.
My first idea was to programatically insert/get column values. If we just found a way to list columns (as the API does)… there’s a challenge for you @Filmos.