How to Install a Ghost Theme

Post cover image

If you don't already have a theme, check out the Ghost themes section of this site.

You are able to upload, activate, and delete a Ghost theme in the admin section of your Ghost blog. You can also drop the theme into the Ghost files manually. It is recommended to upload through the Ghost admin, but here is how to do both anyway:

Upload through admin

  1. Log into the admin section of your Ghost blog 

    yourblog.com/ghost

  2. Click on General under settings in the left hand column and scroll to the very bottom.

  3. Click on Upload a theme

    upload a theme button

  4. Click on the area shown and locate the zip file for your theme.

    Note: Your theme must be in zip format at this time, so if your theme is a folder, you must re-zip it.

    theme upload modal window

  5. Once it is uploaded, click on either Activate now to activate the theme immediately or Close if you want to activate later on.

Upload manually

  1. Unzip your theme if needed. If you are using the command line, here is the command for that:

    unzip /path/to/downloaded/theme.zip

  2. Copy the new theme into Ghost theme directory ghost/content/themes/. Again, if you are using the command line:

    sudo cp -R /path/to/theme/folder /path/to/ghost/content/themes/.
  3. Restart your Ghost blog

  4. In a web browser, navigate to your ghost website's settings:

    http://your_url.com/ghost/settings/general/
  5. Scroll down to the bottom to see a full list of all your themes.
  6. Click on Activate next to the theme you want to activate and it will be activated!

activate theme section