All.ghost platform.how to guide

Causify Blog Platform Documentation#

Introduction#

The blog platform is accessible at blog.causify.ai
It enables us to share company updates, thought leadership content, and technical insights
The audience includes both internal and external stakeholders
The platform is built on Ghost, an open-source, modern publishing solution

Stakeholders#

Executives: Gain visibility into platform reach, editorial calendar, and content quality
Marketing & Communications: Publish and manage content (blog posts and announcements)
Technical Team: Manage and maintain underlying infrastructure, security, and updates

Accessing the Blog#

Public Access#

Navigate to blog.causify.ai. Readers can see published posts without logging in

Admin Access (Staff Portal)#

Go to blog.causify.ai/ghost
Enter your email and password (provided via staff invites)
After logging in, you can create, edit, or publish content—depending on your role

Getting Started as a Staff User#

Receiving an Invitation#

An admin invites you by entering your email address in the Staff → Invite People section
You receive an email link prompting you to create or confirm an account

Logging In#

Open blog.causify.ai/ghost
Enter your credentials (email and password)
You'll be taken to the Ghost Admin Dashboard, where you can see recent posts, drafts, and announcements

How to create and publish a blog#

Jekyll#

Set up Jekyll#

https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll

Install Jekyll locally
- Install Ruby and Bundler:
```
> gem install jekyll bundler
```
- Create a new site:
```
> jekyll new my-blog
> cd my-blog
```
- Build and serve locally:
```
> bundle exec jekyll serve
```
- Open your browser at http://localhost:4000 to see your site
Use Docker
- Instructions at https://github.com/envygeeks/jekyll-docker/blob/master/README.md
- Pull docker
```
> docker pull jekyll/jekyll
```
- On Mac > docker run --platform linux/amd64 -v $(pwd):/site jekyll/jekyll jekyll new blog
  
  export JEKYLL_VERSION=3.8 docker run --rm \ --platform linux/amd64 \ --volume="$PWD:/srv/jekyll:Z" \ -it jekyll/jekyll:$JEKYLL_VERSION \ jekyll build

Add blog posts on GitHub#

- Create a `_posts` folder if it doesn't exist
- Add Markdown files named in the format `YYYY-MM-DD-title.md`, for example:
    ```text
    _posts/2025-07-06-my-first-post.md
    ```

- Each post needs front matter at the top:
```text
    ---
    layout: post
    title: "My First Blog Post"
    date: 2025-07-06
    ---

    This is my first blog post written in Markdown
    ```

Configure GitHub Pages#

- Push your code to GitHub
- Go to the repository's Settings > Pages
- Set the source branch to main and the folder to / (root) or /docs if your
    site is in a docs folder
- Save your settings. Your site will be published at:
    `https://yourusername.github.io/my-blog/`

Add a custom domain (optional)
- Buy a domain name and update your DNS to point to yourusername.github.io
- In your repo, create a file named CNAME with your custom domain name: www.yourdomain.com

Configure#

Example _config.yml to configure your site:

title: My Blog
description: A blog powered by Jekyll and GitHub Pages
baseurl: ""
url: "https://yourusername.github.io"

remote_theme: jekyll/minima

plugins:
    - jekyll-feed

Add an index.md at the root of your repo:
```
---
layout: home
---
```

Folder structure example

├── _config.yml
├── _posts/
│   └── 2025-07-06-my-first-post.md
├── index.md
└── CNAME  # only if using a custom domain

Every time you push changes to GitHub, GitHub Pages will rebuild and publish your site automatically

Hugo#

Ananke#

https://themes.gohugo.io/tags/blog/ Download a them from https://github.com/theNewDynamic/gohugo-theme-ananke

unzip blog/gohugo-theme-ananke-main.zip

mv gohugo-theme-ananke-main blog/themes/ananke

Add
theme = "ananke" config.toml

docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd):/src klakegg/hugo:ext new posts/my-first-post.md WARN 2025/07/06 15:41:14 Module "ananke" is not compatible with this Hugo version; run "hugo mod graph" for more information. Content "/src/content/posts/my-first-post.md" created

vi ./content/posts/my-first-post.md

hugo-book#

https://themes.gohugo.io/themes/hugo-book/ https://github.com/alex-shpak/hugo-book# https://hugo-book-demo.netlify.app/

pre-built image#

This image is too old and doesn't work with many themes

docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd):/src klakegg/hugo:latest new site blog --force

Ananke is not compatible with the klakegg version

Dockerfile#

docker build -t hugo .

docker run --rm -it -p 1313:1313 -v $(pwd):/src hugo hugo server --bind 0.0.0.0

To clean#

hugo mod clean rm -rf public

Ghost#

Writing & Publishing Content#

Create a New Post
- Click New post in the admin panel
- Enter a title and start writing. Ghost uses a rich text/markdown hybrid editor with slash commands (/) for quick embeds
Add Images & Media
- Drag and drop images directly into the editor, or click the "+" button and select Image
- (Optional): We can have S3 or external storage configured, so the files are automatically uploaded to that location
Using Cards & Embeds
- Type / in a new line to see options (e.g., Markdown card, HTML, YouTube embed, etc.)
Preview & Publish
- Click Preview to see how the post will appear to readers
- When ready, click Publish → Publish now or schedule a specific time
Tags & Organization
- Add tags to group similar posts (e.g., Company News, Technical, Research)

Example#

Consider the case where we want to push the Markdown file all.invoke_git_branch_copy.how_to_guide.md to the blog
After creating an account, follow these steps:
Step 1: Open the Ghost Admin panel
- Open blog.causify.ai/ghost
- Enter your credentials to login
- Open the Ghost Admin Panel
Step 2: Create a new post
- Click New post on the top right
Step 3: Insert Markdown card
- Use the /markdown command to insert a Markdown card
Step 4: Paste the contents to post
- Copy and paste the content of all.invoke_git_branch_copy.how_to_guide.md into the Markdown card
Step 5: Perform edits to the content
- Move the level 1 title (e.g., # The Git Branch Copy Workflow) into the Ghost post title field
- Delete the level 1 header from the Markdown card content
Step 6: Handle authorship attribution
- If you are a Contributor:
  - Add a temporary ## Authorship section at the very top of the Markdown card content
  - List everyone who contributed (e.g., wrote code, reviewed, edited)
- If you are an Author or higher:
  - Add contributors directly in the Authors field using the Ghost sidebar
  - You do not need to include a ## Authorship section in the content
- If you are reviewing a blog created by a Contributor:
  - You need to have Author or higher access to do this
  - Check the ## Authorship section at the top of the Markdown card
  - Manually copy the listed names into the Ghost Authors field
  - Delete the ## Authorship section from the Markdown content before publishing
Step 7: Preview post
- Click Preview on the top right to verify formatting (headings, TOC, code blocks)
Step 8: Optionally add metadata like excerpt, tags, or scheduled time
- These actions require Author access or higher
- Contributors cannot modify metadata or scheduling options
Step 9: Publish the blog
- Click Publish → Publish now (or schedule the post for later) to publish the blog
- If you are a Contributor, you cannot publish or schedule posts directly
- A staff member with Author or higher access must review and approve the post before it goes live

Themes & Design#

Default Theme (Casper)
- The blog currently uses Ghost's default theme, "Casper", providing a clean and responsive layout
Customizing Design
- Navigate to Settings → Design to upload a new theme or activate an existing one
- Use Code Injection (under the same area) for tracking scripts (e.g., Google Analytics) or custom CSS

Additional Guides & Tutorials#

Below are step-by-step mini-tutorials to help users and contributors understand some advanced or less obvious features of Ghost
Creating and Managing Tags
- What are tags?
  - Tags let you organize content into categories (e.g., Product Updates, Engineering)
- How to add tags
  - When editing a post, find the Tags section on the right panel, type a new tag name or select an existing one
  - Posts can have multiple tags (e.g., Engineering + Announcements)
- Managing tags
  - Go to Posts → Tags in the admin panel to rename or delete tags
Scheduling Posts
- Why schedule posts?
  - Perfect for timing announcements, product releases, or holiday-themed posts
- How to schedule
  - Write your post, click Publish → Schedule it for later
  - Pick a date and time (in your local timezone)
- Editing a scheduled post
  - Navigate to Posts → Scheduled, then click the post to edit or change the scheduled time
Using Markdown & HTML Blocks
- Markdown basics
  - Ghost's editor supports inline markdown. For advanced formatting, insert a Markdown card by typing /markdown
  - You can use headings, bold, italics, blockquotes, lists, etc.
- HTML cards
  - Type /html to embed raw HTML for custom iframes, custom scripts, or specialized formatting
Excerpt and Meta Data
- Excerpt(Optional)
  - Under Post settings → Excerpt, you can define a short preview text for your post
  - This snippet appears on the home page or in RSS feeds, depending on your theme
- Meta title and description
  - For SEO benefits, set custom meta titles and descriptions under Post settings → Meta data
Integrations & Webhooks
- Built-in integrations
  - Under Settings → Integrations, you can quickly connect Slack, Zapier, or other tools to notify our team when new posts are published
- Custom webhooks
  - You can create webhooks for publish events, letting external systems react (e.g., cross-posting to social media)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)#

How do I reset my password?
- Click Forgot Password? on the login page. Check your inbox for a reset link (ensure it's not caught in spam)
Why isn't my invitation email received?
- Check your spam folder
Can we schedule posts for later?
- Yes, while publishing a new post, choose Publish → Schedule it for later
How do I integrate analytics?
- Use Settings → Code Injection to add your analytics script in the site-wide header/footer
How to reset a staff user's password if they can't access email?
- Admin can go to Staff → Select User → Resend Invitation or Change Password. Alternatively, the user can use the Forgot Password? link
I see a "502 Bad Gateway" error when accessing blog.causify.ai. What do I do?
- Contact the Infra/DevOps team to investigate network issues
Why can't I see the scheduling option?
- Make sure you have an Author (or higher) role. Contributors can't schedule posts
Can we add custom pages (e.g., "About," "Contact," "Terms of Service")?
- Yes. Create a new post and mark it as a page in Post Settings and toggle "Turn this post into a static page."
- Adjust your theme's navigation to link these pages

Summary & Next Steps#

We have successfully deployed a secure, scalable Ghost blog at blog.causify.ai/ghost
- Executives and stakeholders can review content for corporate alignment and brand consistency
- Authors can quickly draft and publish posts, while editors ensure quality
- Technical teams maintain the underlying Kubernetes infrastructure, backups, and security posture
Next Steps:
- Continue inviting staff members who need author access
- Customize the theme to fit the Causify brand
- Review and refine settings as you collect feedback from readers and contributors