Jasper2 is a full-featured Jekyll port of Ghost's default theme Casper (v2.1.9) that turns any Jekyll or GitHub Pages site into a magazine-style blog with multi-author support.
What is Jasper2?
Jasper2 is a Jekyll theme that recreates Ghost's Casper design as a static-site blog theme. It takes Jekyll posts written in Markdown with YAML front matter and outputs a complete blog with author pages, tag pages, related posts, and a 404 page. It runs on Jekyll 3.9.0 and is designed to deploy to GitHub Pages, Netlify, or any Jekyll-compatible host. The theme is maintained by the jekyllt organization on GitHub and released under the MIT License.
Key Features
- Multi-author support — Define authors in
_data/authors.ymland assign each post to a username; author pages are generated automatically. - Author profiles — Each author can have a picture, bio, website, Twitter, and Facebook link displayed on their page.
- Tag pages with covers — Configure tag descriptions and personalized cover images via
_data/tags.yml. - Related posts — A related-posts section appears at the bottom of each post, based on shared tags.
- Casper pages included — All Ghost default pages are present: author, tag, about, and 404.
- Flexible pagination — Choose between infinite scrolling and standard numbered pagination for the post list.
- Atom feeds — Built-in Atom feed via the Jekyll-feed plugin.
- External integrations — Toggleable subscribe button (requires an external service like Mailchimp), Google Analytics, and Disqus comments.
Who is it for?
- Bloggers who love Ghost's design — they can get the same look on a Jekyll site without paying for hosted Ghost.
- Developers using GitHub Pages — they can maintain a blog in a Git repository and have GitHub Actions build and deploy it automatically.
- Multi-author publications — teams can manage multiple authors with distinct profiles and tag pages, all from YAML data files.
What can you do with Jasper2?
- Publish a personal blog — write posts in Markdown, customize
_config.yml, and deploy to GitHub Pages for a free static blog. - Run a multi-author magazine — set up several authors in
_data/authors.ymland give each one a dedicated page with their bio and posts. - Prototype a Ghost blog — use Jasper2 locally to preview Casper's design and content structure before committing to a hosted Ghost setup.
How does Jasper2 work?
Jasper2 is built with Jekyll and uses Gulp/PostCSS to compile CSS. To start, clone the repository, install dependencies with npm install and run gulp to build assets, then run bundle exec jekyll serve to preview locally. For deployment, you can push the generated _site/ folder to a gh-pages branch, use GitHub Actions, or connect the repo to Netlify.
Pricing
Jasper2 is free and open source under the MIT License, with no paid tiers or premium features.
FAQ
Is Jasper2 free?
Yes, Jasper2 is released under the MIT License, so you can use, modify, and redistribute it freely. There are no paid plans or premium features.
Does Jasper2 work with GitHub Pages?
Yes, Jasper2 is designed for GitHub Pages. You can build locally and upload the _site/ contents, or use the included GitHub Actions workflow to build and push to the gh-pages branch automatically.
How do I add multiple authors?
Create entries in _data/authors.yml with each author's username, then set the author field in each post's front matter to match that username. Author pages are generated automatically.
Can I deploy Jasper2 to Netlify?
Yes, Netlify can build the Jekyll site directly from the GitHub repository and serve it via CDN. The README lists Netlify as a supported deployment option.
