Ghost AI Connect — Installation & Setup Guide

Overview

Goldnat AI Connect for Ghost is a Node.js + Express bridge that connects the Ghost API to AI agents. Ghost is an API-first (headless) CMS, so our bridge provides the OAuth 2.0 + PKCE layer and a full tool mapping on top.

What you get:

• 3 free tools — getPosts, getPost, searchContent
• Pro upgrade — getPages, getTags, getAuthors, createPost, updatePost, publishPost, deletePost
• Separate Pro extension: ghost-members-ai-connect (Members + Newsletter + Stripe)

Prerequisites

• Ghost 5.x
• Node.js 18+ and PM2 (or systemd)
• Admin API Key from Ghost
• Access to Ghost’s MySQL/SQLite (read-only — no direct writes)
• HTTPS required in production
• Reverse proxy (Apache/Nginx) to serve the manifest

Installation

Step 1: Prepare Ghost

1. Ghost Admin → Settings → Integrations → Add custom integration — name: AI Connect.
2. Copy the Admin API Key (SECRET:ID format).
3. Save it temporarily in a secure place.

Step 2: Install the bridge

Download the bridge package from your personal area at goldnat.ai (sign in → your plugins → download the latest version), then extract and set it up:

cd /var/www/
# Extract the package you downloaded from goldnat.ai into ./ghost-ai-connect
cd ghost-ai-connect
npm install
cp .env.example .env

Edit .env:

GHOST_URL=https://blog.example.com
GHOST_ADMIN_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY_HERE
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_NAME=ghost_aiconnect
DB_USER=ghost
DB_PASS=YOUR_PASSWORD
PORT=3087

Step 3: Start + Reverse Proxy

pm2 start src/index.js --name ghost-ai-connect
pm2 save
pm2 startup

Add to Apache/Nginx vhost:

# Apache
ProxyPass /api/ai-connect http://localhost:3087/api/ai-connect
ProxyPassReverse /api/ai-connect http://localhost:3087/api/ai-connect

Connecting to an AI Agent

1. Go to https://your-blog.example.com/account/tokens — the bridge’s token management page.
2. Generate Prompt → copy and paste into your agent.
3. Approve OAuth PKCE.

First Test

• “Show 5 recent posts” → ghost.getPosts with limit=5
• “What’s in the ‘AI Roadmap’ post?” → ghost.searchContent + ghost.getPost
• “Search for posts about machine learning” → ghost.searchContent with q=machine learning

With Pro:

• “Create a draft post titled ‘Vision Statement’” → ghost.createPost
• “Publish this draft” → ghost.publishPost

Reconnecting

Tokens valid for 30 days. If expired:

1. /account/tokens → Revoke the old token.
2. Generate Prompt again.

Token Management

As with the other plugins — /account/tokens page with full filters. Note: Ghost uses its Admin API, so every action runs as the content admin.

Uninstalling the Bridge

1. Revoke all tokens

• /account/tokens → Revoke All — kills every active agent session.

2. Stop and remove the PM2 service

pm2 stop ghost-ai-connect
pm2 delete ghost-ai-connect
pm2 save

3. Remove the reverse-proxy rules

• Delete the ProxyPass /api/ai-connect ... lines from your Apache/Nginx vhost.
• Reload the web server: apache2ctl graceful or nginx -s reload.

4. Remove the code

rm -rf /var/www/ghost-ai-connect

5. Remove the Ghost integration

• Ghost Admin → Settings → Integrations → click the AI Connect integration → Delete Integration.
• This invalidates the Admin API Key.

6. Drop the DB (fresh reinstall only)

DROP DATABASE ghost_aiconnect;

Warning: Deletes all token history and audit logs. Take a full backup first.

Common Troubleshooting

Error	Cause	Fix
Ghost API unreachable	Wrong GHOST_URL in .env	Verify the URL is reachable from the bridge server
Invalid Admin API Key	Key not copied in full	Must include both SECRET:ID parts together
Manifest 502	Bridge not running	pm2 status ghost-ai-connect + pm2 restart
CORS blocked	Reverse proxy missing headers	Add Access-Control-Allow-Origin in Apache/Nginx

Support

Need help? Contact us and we’ll get back to you.

Video Tutorial (Coming Soon)

4-5 minute walkthrough: (A) Goldnat AI Connect on the Servio Protocol, (B) creating the Custom Integration in Ghost admin + copying the Admin API Key, (C) running the bridge via PM2, (D) connecting to an AI agent and 3 typical queries.

What Pro adds

The free Ghost bridge gives AI agents read-only access (browse posts, tags, authors, search). Pro adds the write and member-management tools, so an agent can actually create and edit content and manage your mailing list.

Pro ships as a separate package (ghost-members-ai-connect) that installs alongside the free bridge. The free bridge holds the tool infrastructure; the Pro package holds the Pro tools and registers them into the same manifest — they never appear unless your edition is Pro.

Pro tools

Tool	Scope	What it does
createPost	write	Create a new draft post (title, HTML, tags, status)
updatePost	write	Update an existing post’s title, content, or tags
publishPost	write	Change a draft’s status to published
deletePost	delete	Permanently delete a post
addMember	write	Add a newsletter subscriber
updateMember	write	Update a subscriber’s name or email

Enabling Pro

1. Install the free Ghost bridge first (see the basic guide above).
2. Install the ghost-members-ai-connect package alongside it.
3. Set the edition to Pro: AICONNECT_EDITION=pro in the bridge’s .env, then restart the service.
4. Regenerate your connection prompt — the six Pro tools now appear in the manifest.

When the edition is not Pro, the Pro package is never loaded and the Pro tools do not appear.

Scope note

createPost/updatePost/publishPost/addMember/updateMember require the write scope; deletePost requires delete. A token only ever gets a scope its owner is allowed to grant — the scope is the ceiling, the user’s Ghost permissions are the floor.