gpreview

Ghost Theme Preview

A lightweight, zero-config tool for previewing Ghost themes without running a full Ghost installation. Perfect for theme developers who want to test their Handlebars templates with mock data.

Installation

# Install globally
npm install -g gpreview

# Or use npx without installing
npx gpreview /path/to/your/theme

Quick Start

# Preview theme in current directory
gpreview

# Preview a specific theme
gpreview ./my-ghost-theme

# Use a custom port
gpreview ./my-ghost-theme -p 8080

Features

• 🚀 Zero Configuration - Works out of the box with sensible defaults
• 🎨 Full Theme Support - Renders all standard Ghost templates (index, post, page, tag, author)
• 🔧 Ghost Helpers - Implements all essential Ghost Handlebars helpers
• 📦 Built-in Mock Data - Includes sample posts, authors, tags, and pages
• 🔄 Hot Reload - Changes to theme files are reflected immediately
• 📁 Static Assets - Automatically serves CSS, JS, and images from your theme
• 🎯 Template Fallbacks - Gracefully handles missing templates

Usage

CLI Options

gpreview [theme-path] [options]

• theme-path - Path to Ghost theme directory (default: current directory)
• -p, --port <number> - Port to run server on (default: 3000)
• -d, --data <path> - Path to custom mock data JSON file
• -w, --watch - Watch theme files for changes and auto-reload
• -V, --version - Output the version number
• -h, --help - Display help for command

Examples

# Preview current directory as theme
gpreview

# Preview a specific theme
gpreview /path/to/casper

# Use a different port
gpreview ./my-theme -p 8080

# Watch for file changes
gpreview ./my-theme -w

API Integration

You can also use this package programmatically:

const { PreviewServer } = require('gpreview');

const server = new PreviewServer({
  themePath: './my-theme',
  port: 3000,
});

server.start().then(() => {
  console.log('Theme preview running on http://localhost:3000');
});

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build TypeScript
npm run build

# Test with example themes
npm run preview dawn

# Run tests
npm test