Can ai create ghost theme?

Themes
1

Hi, I want to create a ghost theme for my blog but have no budget. Can ai design and code ghost themes?

2

I’ve tried it a few times — it can, but it’s not very good at it so far

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3

I generally find that AI tends to try to write generic handlebars, not Ghost’s dialect. You’ll probably have more success if you start from an existing theme and restyle it.

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4

I’ve been reading up on some Vibe Coding Nightmares and often times I see cases where it starts great, but by 3 prompts in to refine something, the AI tends to start deleting lines of code or changing things that weren’t asked for. This then creates a rabbit hole of going back and trying to bring things back to the way they were, but the process repeats and it deletes the thing you just asked for it to do.
And as it continues, oh no! You hit your rate limit. Try again tomorrow!
Now you’re back at square one with the AI completely forgetting what it was doing in the first place. To mitigate it, you start paying, next thing you know, you are $100 deep in on AI slop that kind of works.
I might be over exaggerating, or I may not be… Usage varies. It’s so unpredictable and volatile. You’re better off as @Cathy_Sarisky mentioned and rebuilding from what already exists or save up and hire someone.

1 Like
5

If you already have some coding experience with Handlebars, HTML, CSS, and similar tools, then you can easily create Ghost themes using Kilo Code or any other tool you prefer. But you should definitely have some basic coding knowledge to tweak features properly. Always refer to the Ghost documentation when you need help with specific parts.

I used Z AI GLM-4.6 : They were giving a huge Black Friday discount. If you use that link, you’ll get an additional 10% off.

Example Prompt :


I want you to create a simple, minimal, newsletter-focused Ghost theme.

The theme must be clean, typography-focused, mobile-friendly, and optimized for long-form reading like a Substack-style newsletter.


Theme Goals
Minimal design
Large readable typography
No clutter
Perfect for weekly newsletter content
Post pages should look like email newsletters
Soft colors, long-form reading spacing
Optional subscription box at the top/bottom
Supports both free & paid posts
Fully Ghost 6 compatible

Reference Themes / Ideas

Use these themes as design inspiration (don’t copy code):

Ghost "Headline" theme:
Ghost "Dope" newsletter-style theme:
Ghost "Edition" theme (simple magazine style):

Design Requirements

Header with logo + subscribe button
Clean centered layout (max-width 680px)
sans-serif font for body text
serif for headings
Big title, big intro text
Warm, soft background (#faf8f6 or similar)
Post list page that looks like Substack article list
Paginated index
Post page with:

Title
Publish date
Feature image (optional)
Full content
Signup box
Previous/Next links
Tags

Theme Files Needed

Please generate all files with complete working code:


1. package.json
name, version, config
2. default.hbs

wrapper layout
header
footer
main container

3. index.hbs
newsletter-style post list

4. post.hbs

headline layout
clean typography
author & date
signup CTA box

5. page.hbs

simple static page

6. tag.hbs

list posts by tag (newsletter archive style)

7. partials/

Generate these:

partials/header.hbs
partials/footer.hbs
partials/subscribe-box.hbs
partials/post-card.hbs



8. assets/

Create:

assets/built/screen.css (custom simple CSS)

Use Tailwind CSS
Include typography, spacing, buttons

9. theme settings YAML

package.json with "config": { "posts_per_page": 10 }

routes.yaml sample (optional)


Technical Requirements

Follow Ghost theme documentation:

Use Ghost helpers properly:


{{#foreach posts}}

{{post_class})
{{content}}
{{pagination}}
{{@member}}
{{> subscribe-box}}
{{#has}} etc.

 Output Format
Output the theme like this:


Theme name folder:

/newsletter-theme/


Inside it, list each file with:

File path

Code block containing the file contents


Example formatting:

/newsletter-theme/default.hbs

{{! file code here }}


Continue this pattern for all theme files.

Do NOT skip any file.
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6

I also tried several times. Actually Claude was very good at finishing a “technically complete” ghost theme, with some iteration. It can create required files passing gscan tests. But, visual output was not nice at all, because I didn’t guide it about the design itself. I think, if you have a nice looking design in your mind (or a Figma file or a reference site) and explain it well, then it seems completely doable.

1 Like