Ghost is a professional publishing platform (CMS) with a strong focus on content creation, newsletters, memberships, and monetization. The system provides a full-stack solution: a Node.js/Express backend serving admin and public APIs, multiple frontend applications including an admin interface (React with legacy Ember migration), a Lexical-based rich text editor (Koenig), membership/portal UI, comments, signup forms, and an ActivityPub integration. The architecture follows a monorepo structure managed with pnpm and Nx, featuring adapters for cache/storage/scheduling, a domain events system, and versioned database migrations. Key entry points include `ghost/core/index.js` for the backend server and `apps/admin` for the admin SPA. Data flows involve content authored via the editor, stored in a relational database (via Knex/Bookshelf), served through REST APIs, rendered via Handlebars themes, and distributed through email campaigns (Mailgun) and RSS.
This repository implements the Ghost CLI, a command-line tool for installing, configuring, updating, and managing Ghost CMS instances on Linux servers (Ubuntu). The system is a monolithic Node.js application with a plugin architecture. Its core responsibilities include: (1) resolving and downloading Ghost versions from the npm registry, (2) setting up required infrastructure (MySQL, nginx, systemd), (3) managing instance lifecycle (start/stop/restart), (4) handling content migration and import/export via the Ghost Admin API, (5) running health checks via the doctor command, and (6) handling major version upgrades with rollback support. Architecturally, the CLI is composed of a Command base class with yargs integration, a layered task system using listr2 for sequential/parallel operations, and an extension system that allows built-in plugins (nginx, systemd, MySQL) to inject commands, setup steps, doctor checks, and custom process managers. Configuration is managed via JSON files, and dependencies are installed using either yarn or pnpm. The codebase is well-structured with clear separation of concerns: commands in lib/commands/, tasks in lib/tasks/, utilities in lib/utils/, and extensions in extensions/. The tool depends on external services: npm registry for version resolution, Ghost Admin API for import/export, system tools (nginx, systemd, MySQL) for production setups, and acme.sh for SSL certificate management. It supports local development (direct node process) and production (systemd service). The codebase is actively maintained, with support for Ghost versions 1.x through 6.x, Node.js 22/24, and MySQL 5.6 through 9.4. While there is some legacy code for older Ghost versions, the overall architecture is modern, testable, and modular.
This repository is the official Ghost Starter Theme, a foundation for building custom Ghost CMS themes. It provides a complete set of Handlebars templates (default.hbs, index.hbs, post.hbs, etc.), modular CSS components (buttons, forms, global reset), and JavaScript modules (mobile menu toggle, infinite scroll) that are compiled and optimized via Rollup and PostCSS. The theme is designed to be extended and includes CI/CD workflows for testing and deployment. It is not a standalone application but a theme package that runs within the Ghost CMS environment (>=5.0.0). The codebase demonstrates modern front-end tooling with ESM, CSS custom properties, and responsive image handling. While the theme itself is tightly coupled to Ghost's template engine, several components (CSS patterns, infinite scroll, menu toggle) are self-contained and could be extracted for use in other projects.
The Dawn repository is a Ghost theme designed for the Ghost blogging platform (version >=5.0.0). It provides a responsive, feature-rich frontend for Ghost blogs, including templates for various page types, asset pipelines for CSS and JavaScript, and support for Ghost-native features like members, tags, authors, and comments. The theme emphasizes reader experience with adaptive navigation, infinite scroll pagination, lightbox galleries, and responsive embeds. Architecturally, it follows the standard Ghost theme structure with Handlebars templates for server-side rendering and client-side JavaScript enhancements. The build system uses Gulp and PostCSS to process assets, and leverages shared Ghost theme packages for base assets and translations. Key interactive components include a responsive dropdown menu, infinite scroll pagination with IntersectionObserver, a delegated lightbox for dynamic content, and responsive image handling via a custom Handlebars partial. While the theme is highly optimized for Ghost integration, it contains several reusable frontend patterns—such as adaptive navigation, infinite scroll pagination, and dynamic lightbox galleries—that could be adapted to other projects with minimal modification. The theme is actively maintained as part of the TryGhost/Themes monorepo, with recent commits indicating ongoing support.