Ghost setup guide — ContentPulse

What it does in ContentPulse: Publish blog posts to your Ghost-powered site (Ghost(Pro) or self-hosted). ContentPulse uses the Admin API to create draft or published posts. Status: Available Tier: Available on all paid plans.

Before you start (prerequisites)

Account requirement: A Ghost site you can admin. This works with both Ghost(Pro) (managed at https://ghost.org/pricing/, plans currently start around USD 9/month) and self-hosted Ghost running anywhere.
Admin access: You need permission to create custom integrations in Ghost Admin (typically Owner or Administrator role).
Cost: Same as your existing Ghost subscription — no extra cost for API access. Ghost's API is included on every plan.

Step-by-step setup

1. On the Ghost side — create a custom integration

Sign in to Ghost Admin (usually https://yoursite.ghost.io/ghost or https://yoursite.com/ghost).
Click the gear icon (bottom left) → Settings → Advanced → Integrations, or go to Settings → Integrations depending on your Ghost version. [Screenshot to be added](screenshot:Ghost Admin sidebar with Integrations highlighted)
Click Add custom integration.
Give it a name like ContentPulse and click Create. [Screenshot to be added](screenshot:New custom integration modal)
Ghost generates two keys: a Content API Key and an Admin API Key. You need the Admin API Key. It looks like 64bba0a06250bd7e4be4f9aa:abc123def456... (a 24-character ID, a colon, then a 64-character hex secret). [Screenshot to be added](screenshot:Integration page with Admin API Key highlighted)
Copy the Admin API Key. Keep this tab open.

2. In ContentPulse — paste the credentials

Go to https://contentpulse.helloaurora.ai/settings/connections.
Find Ghost in the "Direct Publishing — Live" list and click Connect.
A modal opens with two fields:
- Blog URL — your Ghost site URL, e.g. https://yoursite.ghost.io or https://blog.yourcompany.com (no trailing slash)
- Admin API Key — the id:hex_secret string you just copied [Screenshot to be added](screenshot:ContentPulse Ghost connect modal)
Click Connect. ContentPulse builds a JWT from your key and hits Ghost's /ghost/api/admin/site/ endpoint to verify. If it works, you'll see "Ghost connected successfully!".

3. Verify it's working

On the Connections page, the Ghost row shows a green checkmark and your site title.
Optional: open the Publish UI, write a short test post, click Publish to Ghost, and confirm it appears in Ghost Admin under Posts (it will be a draft by default).

What you can do with it once connected

Publish posts as drafts (default) or directly to public.
Set post title, body (HTML or Markdown — ContentPulse converts to Ghost's Lexical format), and tags from the Publish UI.
Schedule posts via the Queue.

Common pitfalls

Pitfall: "Invalid Ghost API key format." Fix: The Admin API Key must contain a colon (:) separating the ID from the hex secret. If you only see the Content API Key (no colon, just hex characters), you grabbed the wrong key. Go back to Ghost Admin → Integrations → your integration and copy the Admin API Key specifically.
Pitfall: "Could not connect to Ghost" with a valid-looking key. Fix: Most likely causes — (1) the blog URL has a typo or wrong protocol (http:// instead of https://), (2) your Ghost site requires a non-default Admin API path (rare; self-hosted Ghost behind a reverse proxy), or (3) Cloudflare or another CDN is challenging the JWT. If you're behind Cloudflare with Bot Fight Mode enabled, whitelist the ContentPulse origin IPs — email [support@helloaurora.ai](mailto:support@helloaurora.ai) for the current list.
Pitfall: Posts publish but formatting is mangled (no headings, lists collapse). Fix: Ghost moved to a Lexical-based editor in v5+. ContentPulse converts Markdown to Ghost's MobileDoc/Lexical format, but complex tables or embeds may not survive. For richest formatting, paste finalized HTML directly in the Publish UI.
Pitfall: Custom domain Ghost site fails to connect. Fix: Use the actual reachable URL, not the xxxx.ghost.io URL behind your custom domain. If https://blog.yourcompany.com/ghost/api/admin/site/ returns 200 in your browser, that's the URL ContentPulse needs.

Restrictions

ContentPulse only publishes posts. We don't read existing posts, members, or analytics from Ghost.
We don't upload featured images yet — that's on the roadmap. Set a featured image manually in Ghost after publishing.
Member-only / paid-tier posts are supported (toggle in the Publish UI), but ContentPulse doesn't manage your Ghost member tiers.

Need help?

Email [support@helloaurora.ai](mailto:support@helloaurora.ai) — we'll walk you through it.