Ghost Writer Manager

One-way synchronization from Obsidian to Ghost CMS with post scheduling, YAML metadata control, automatic sync, and an editorial calendar view.

Features

• 🔄 One-way sync from Obsidian to Ghost (keeps Ghost as your publishing platform)
• 📅 Editorial calendar - Sidebar view of all scheduled and published posts for the month
• 📝 YAML frontmatter control - Manage all Ghost metadata directly in Obsidian
• 🕐 Post scheduling - Schedule posts for future publication with g_published_at
• 🔄 Automatic sync - Debounced sync on file save (2s delay)
• ⏰ Periodic sync - Configurable interval sync (default: 15 minutes)
• ✨ Markdown to Lexical conversion - Full markdown support including images
• 🔒 Paywall marker - Control the public preview line with --members-only--
• 🔐 Secure credentials - API keys stored in Obsidian's secure keychain
• 🔑 JWT authentication - Secure Ghost Admin API integration
• 📊 Status bar indicator - Visual feedback on sync status
• 🎯 Flexible configuration - Custom sync folder, prefix, and intervals

Installation

From GitHub Releases (Recommended)

1. Go to the Releases page
2. Download the latest release files:
   • main.js
   • manifest.json
   • styles.css
3. In your vault, navigate to .obsidian/plugins/ folder
4. Create a new folder called ghost-writer-manager
5. Move the downloaded files into .obsidian/plugins/ghost-writer-manager/
6. Restart Obsidian or reload the app
7. Go to Settings → Community Plugins
8. Enable Ghost Writer Manager

From Source (For Development)

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/diegoeis/ghost-writer-manager-plugin.git
   cd ghost-writer-manager-plugin
   

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Configure your vault path for hot reload:

   cp dev.config.example.json dev.config.json
   # Edit dev.config.json with your vault path
   

4. Start dev mode with hot reload:

   npm run dev
   

   This will automatically:

   • Watch for file changes
   • Build on every change
   • Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to your vault
   • No manual copying needed!

5. Enable the plugin in Obsidian settings

6. Reload Obsidian (Ctrl/Cmd + R) to see changes

Configuration

Getting Your Ghost Admin API Key

1. Log in to your Ghost Admin panel
2. Navigate to Settings → Integrations
3. Click Add custom integration
4. Give it a name (e.g., "Obsidian Sync")
5. Copy the Admin API Key (format: id:secret)

Plugin Settings

1. Open Obsidian Settings

2. Navigate to Ghost Writer Manager under Community Plugins

3. Configure the following:

   • Ghost URL: Your Ghost site URL (e.g., https://yourblog.ghost.io)
   • Admin API Key: The key you copied from Ghost (stored securely in Obsidian's keychain)
   • Sync Folder: Where Ghost posts will be stored in your vault (default: Ghost Posts)
   • Sync Interval: How often to check for changes in minutes (default: 15)
   • YAML Prefix: Prefix for Ghost metadata fields (default: g_)

4. Click Test Connection to verify your credentials

Note: Your Admin API Key is stored securely using Obsidian's keychain and is not saved in plain text.

Usage

Editorial Calendar

Open the editorial calendar from the ribbon icon or via Cmd/Ctrl + P → "Open Ghost editorial calendar". The sidebar shows all published and scheduled posts for the current month:

• Purple dot — post is published
• Green dot — post is scheduled
• Both dots — day has both published and scheduled posts
• Click a day to filter the post list to that day; click again to show all
• Click a post title to open the linked vault note in a new tab
• Click the external link icon to open the post directly in Ghost Admin
• Use the Today button to return to the current month

Commands

Available commands (Cmd/Ctrl + P):

• Sync with Ghost - Manually sync all files in sync folder
• Test Ghost connection - Verify your Ghost credentials
• Open Ghost editorial calendar - Open the calendar sidebar view
• Create new Ghost post - Generate new post with Ghost properties template
• Add Ghost properties to current note - Add Ghost properties to existing note
• Sync current note to Ghost - Force sync of active file
• Debug commands - Show properties, test JWT, view file data

YAML Frontmatter

Control all Ghost post metadata using YAML frontmatter:

---
g_post_access: paid              # Visibility: public, members, or paid
g_published: false               # Draft (false) or published (true)
g_published_at: ""               # Schedule: ISO date (e.g., "2026-12-25T10:00:00.000Z")
g_featured: false                # Mark as featured post
g_tags: [obsidian, ghost]        # Post tags
g_excerpt: "Post summary"        # Custom excerpt/description
g_feature_image: ""              # Featured image URL
g_slug: "custom-url"             # Custom URL slug
g_no_sync: false                 # Disable sync for this post
---

# Your Post Title

Your post content here...

Paywall marker

Control where the public preview ends for members-only posts. Add --members-only-- on its own line anywhere in the post body:

# My Post

This paragraph is visible to everyone.

--members-only--

This content is only visible to paying members.

• The marker is rendered as a styled banner in the Obsidian editor (uses your theme's accent color)
• Everything above the marker is the public preview; everything below is behind the Ghost paywall
• Only one marker is allowed — if you add a second one, the first is removed automatically
• Works together with g_post_access: paid or g_post_access: members

Post Scheduling

Control when posts are published:

• Draft: g_published: false (ignores g_published_at)
• Publish now: g_published: true + g_published_at: ""
• Schedule: g_published: true + g_published_at: "2026-12-25T10:00:00.000Z" (future date)
• Backdate: g_published: true + g_published_at: "2020-01-01T10:00:00.000Z" (past date)

Development

Project Structure

ghost-writer-manager-plugin/
├── main.ts                 # Main plugin file
├── src/
│   ├── types.ts           # TypeScript interfaces
│   ├── ghost/
│   │   └── api-client.ts  # Ghost Admin API client
│   └── views/
│       └── calendar-view.ts  # Editorial calendar sidebar
├── styles.css             # Plugin styles
├── manifest.json          # Plugin manifest
├── package.json           # Dependencies
└── tsconfig.json          # TypeScript config

Commands

• npm run dev - Build in development mode with watch
• npm run build - Build for production
• npm run lint - Run ESLint

Development Mode

The plugin includes a DEV_MODE flag in main.ts that enables auto-sync on file changes:

const DEV_MODE = true; // Set to false for production builds

When DEV_MODE = true:

• Files auto-sync 2 seconds after last change (debounced)
• Useful for testing during development

When DEV_MODE = false (production):

• Files only sync according to the configured interval
• Manual sync still available via commands

Important: Always set DEV_MODE = false before building for production/release.

Roadmap

✅ Completed (v0.1.0)

• Ghost API authentication (JWT with HMAC-SHA256)
• Settings interface
• Connection testing
• One-way sync engine (Obsidian → Ghost)
• YAML metadata control (full Ghost properties support)
• Markdown to Lexical format conversion
• Periodic sync (configurable interval)
• Post scheduling system
• Status bar indicator
• Manual sync commands
• Development mode with auto-sync (debounced)

✅ Completed (v0.2.0)

• Editorial calendar sidebar view

✅ Completed (v0.2.7)

• Paywall marker (--members-only--) with live editor decoration and auto-deduplication

🚧 Future Features

• Two-way sync (Ghost → Obsidian)
• Ghost pages support
• Media upload support
• Conflict resolution
• Bulk operations
• Post templates

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT

Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions, please open an issue.