HackersAndSlackers Ghost Theme is a hand-crafted Ghost CMS theme developed by HackersAndSlackers for their own blog, adding advanced reading features like post series, related posts, data tables, and PrismJS code highlighting on top of Ghost's core publishing tools. It targets Ghost version 5.0.0 and newer, uses Handlebars for templating, and builds via Webpack 5.92.1 with Sass ^1.66.0.
What is the HackersAndSlackers Ghost Theme?
The HackersAndSlackers Ghost Theme is an open-source Ghost theme that accepts standard Ghost content—posts, authors, tags, and member accounts—and renders it into a blog with custom widgets and integrations beyond Ghost's default functionality. It is authored by HackersAndSlackers and is shared publicly on GitHub for other developers to use and contribute to. The theme is in active development, and the repository provides a developer workflow using git clone, yarn, and make dev.
Key Features
- Post Series — Create sequential collections of posts with a per-post table of contents, next/previous navigation modules, and a series overview page.
- Related Posts — Readers see intelligent post suggestions derived from the current article's content.
- Data Tables — Posts can cleanly present and navigate datasets through a dedicated table interface.
- PrismJS Code Highlighting — Approximately 50 programming languages are supported for syntax highlighting out of the box.
- Author List & Profiles — An overview page lists all contributors; individual author pages embed GitHub activity widgets and previews of personal websites.
- Accounts & Comments — Native Ghost member accounts work alongside Ghost's built-in comments system.
- Newsletter Opt-in — A simple newsletter subscription form integrates with Ghost members.
- Webpack Build System — Webpack 5.92.1 handles Sass rendering, minification, and code-split asset bundles, replacing the older Gulp workflow.
- Automations — A companion API (blog-webhook-api by toddbirchard) supports automatic post optimization and image caching.
Who is it for?
This theme fits developers and technical bloggers running Ghost who want built-in enhancements for code-heavy, serialized content. It's also for theme developers who prefer a Webpack-based build pipeline, and for multi-author blogs that need GitHub activity widgets and author overview pages. The public GitHub repository makes it a starting point for anyone building a custom Ghost theme with modern tooling.
Use cases
- Multi-part tutorial publishers: Organize posts into a series with a table of contents and next/previous buttons, giving readers a clear path through sequential articles.
- Code-heavy technical blogs: Highlight code across ~50 languages with PrismJS and present structured datasets in data tables directly inside posts.
- Open-source theme developers: Clone the repo, run
yarn, and usemake devto launch a development environment and extend the theme's Webpack-based build. - Ghost site owners: Enable native newsletter signup, comments, and member accounts to grow an audience while keeping the blog's design clean.
How does the theme work?
Developers start by cloning the repository, installing dependencies with yarn, and running make dev to get a local development server. The theme relies on Webpack to compile Sass, minify files, and produce code-split asset bundles, while integrations are configured through a .example.env file that gets renamed to .env and filled with the developer's own keys. Because it targets Ghost 5.x, it requires a Ghost installation that supports that version.
FAQ
Is the HackersAndSlackers Ghost Theme free?
Yes. The theme is open source and publicly available on GitHub. There is no paid tier or license fee, and developers can freely use, modify, and contribute to the code.
What Ghost version does it require?
The theme targets Ghost version 5.0.0 and newer. Older Ghost releases may not be compatible, so ensure your Ghost instance is on version 5 or above before installing.
Does the theme support comments and newsletters?
Yes. It includes a native implementation of Ghost comments, plus a simple newsletter opt-in form that connects to Ghost members. No third-party services are required for those features.
What build tools does the theme use?
The theme uses Webpack 5.92.1 for bundling and task running, with Sass ^1.66.0 for styling. It replaced the previous Gulp-based approach, and it leverages Webpack plugins to minify source files and serve code-split assets.
