Replaced with:
{{ dirFiles('img/sliders') |> sliders }}
{{ sliders.count() }}
{{#each slide in sliders}}
{{ slide | textDump }}
{{/each}}
Still no dice. Even if I put dirFiles('.'), allFiles() and every other one I tested, it still shows a 0 count.
The metadata debug inspector shows:
VirtualFiles Path C:\projects\git\other\cc4c-night-web\cc4c\cc4c
VirtualFileSources Path C:\projects\git\other\cc4c-night-web\cc4c\cc4c\wwwroot
Not sure how to troubleshoot this.