{{Pager}} Sort Order not working || YMAL vs JSON

[firelite]

This {{pager pagination}} helper seems very promising... now only if I could get it to work right.

I'm having a 2 main issues right now.
1) Got trouble setting the next and previous sort order. By default it seems to be in alphabetical order.
2) I'd like to use a JSON file, so I can manage the sort order from a single file, while still loading YMAL variables and content from pages as usual.

My Gruntfile.js:

module.exports = function(grunt) {

  grunt.initConfig({
    pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),
    posts: grunt.file.readJSON('src/pages/_directory.json'),

    options: {livereload:true},

    assemble: {
      options: {
        flatten: false,
        assets: 'dist/assets/',
        data: ['src/data/*.json'],
        layoutdir: 'src/layouts/',
        partials: 'src/partials/**/*.hbr',
        helpers: ['src/helpers/**/*.js','handlebars-helper-eachitems'],
        collections: [{
          name: 'pages',
          sortby: 'chapter',
          sortorder: 'descending'
        }],
      },
      homepage: {
        options: {      
          layout: 'homepage.hbr'
        },
        expand: true,
        cwd: 'src/pages/',
        src: ['index.hbr'],
        dest: 'dist/'
      },
      single: {
        options: {      
          layout: 'single.hbr',
          //pages: '<%= posts.listing %>',  // breaks pages and assemble creates 6 copies each page.
          //data: 'src/pages/*.json',           
        },
        expand: true,
        cwd: 'src/pages/',
        src: ['**/*.hbr','!index.hbr'],
        dest: 'dist/'
      }
    }

//... 

_directory.json contains pages in desired order:

{
  "listing": {
    "services": {
      "data": {
        "chapter": "services"
      }
    },
    "we-help-the-economy": {
      "data": {
        "chapter": "we-help-the-economy"
      }
    },
    "evolution": {
      "data": {
        "chapter": "evolution"
      }
    },
    "the-model": {
      "data": {
        "chapter": "the-model"
      }
    },
    "close": {
      "data": {
        "chapter": "close"
      }
    }
  }
}

When pages: '<%= posts.listing %>', the assemble:single task creates each page 6 times. The pages become blank and the pager starts working funky. When I comment out that line, it goes back to normal, but still the pages are in alphabetical order.

src/pages/close.hbr:

---
order:      4
section:    SECTION_PLACEHOLDER
chapter:    Close
listed:     true

---

<h2>All Sections</h2> 
{{#each  pages }} 
   <li><a href="{{replaceStr this.dest 'dist' ''}}">{{data.chapter}}</a></li> 
{{/each}}   

<h2>All Sections w/ Sorting</h2> 
{{#withSort pages "data.order"}}
  {{#each this.pages}}
    <li><a href="{{replaceStr this.dest 'dist' ''}}">{{data.chapter}}</a></li>
  {{/each}}
{{/withSort}}

<h2>Pager</h2>
{{pager pagination}}

Which compiles to:

All Sections

• Close
• Evolution
• Services
• The model
• We help the economy

All Sections w/ Sorting

(nothing here)

Pager

POPULAR
Next (Evolution) -->

Thanks for reading through this long post. Any help would be appreciated!