how to access assets/images from the view in Sails.js?

Sails use Grunt (Gruntfile.js in root of project) to execute some tasks during sails lift. One of that tasks is to copy files from assets directory to .tmp/public/ directory (in development version). So if u add your file to assets directory you will need to restart sails (sails lift) to get it accessible from .tmp/public/ (what is public accessible directory root). Also its important to note that if u put files directly to .tmp/public/ it will be accessible instant, but on next sails lift it will be deleted, since one of Grunt tasks is to clear that directory before copy new files. All of this u can find on sails documentation (assets and asset-management) and by reading Gruntfile.js in root of your project

<img src="/images/placeholder.png">

should work. the assets folder is the equivalent to adding a folder with the static middleware in express.

asset documentation

Looks like you have grunt hook removed.

When removing the grunt hook you must also specify the following in .sailsrc in order for your assets to be served, otherwise all assets will return a 404.

{
  "paths": {
    "public": "assets"
  }
}