Afterword

Afterword is an Eleventy static site front end for a Ghost CMS backend.

It is not a Ghost theme. Ghost remains the content source of truth, and Eleventy builds a filtered, custom-designed static site from that content for deployment.

Architecture

• Ghost provides posts and site data through the Content API
• Eleventy renders the public static frontend
• Netlify deploys the generated _site output

Content model

The site currently pulls in posts tagged with one or more of these tags:

• afterword
• status
• listening
• books
• gallery

Some legacy tags are still tolerated during migration:

• now
• now-playing
• now-reading
• photos

Required environment variables

• GHOST_URL
• GHOST_ADMIN_URL
• GHOST_ADMIN_KEY
• SITE_URL
• MICROPUB_TOKEN (shared bearer token for Micropub clients)
• INDIEAUTH_SECRET (HMAC secret for IndieAuth auth codes and access tokens)
• INDIEAUTH_PASSWORD (password you enter on the /auth approval screen)
• GITHUB_TOKEN (GitHub token with repo write access)
• GITHUB_REPO (owner/repo, used by Micropub function to commit status markdown)

Optional:

• GITHUB_BRANCH (default: main)
• MICROPUB_STATUS_DIR (default: src/status)
• MICROPUB_MEDIA_DIR (default: src/assets/status-images)
• SITE_LOGO (override local avatar path)

Install

yarn

Run

yarn start

Build

yarn build

Micropub endpoint

This site includes a Netlify Micropub endpoint at:

• /micropub
• /micropub/media
• IndieAuth authorization endpoint: /auth
• IndieAuth token endpoint: /token

Current behavior:

• Supports create (h-entry) posts.
• Writes new markdown files into src/status/ via GitHub API commits.
• Returns 201 Created with a Location header to the new permalink.
• Supports q=config and q=syndicate-to.
• Supports media upload via multipart file field at /micropub/media and returns 201 with media Location.
• Supports IndieAuth code flow for mobile Micropub apps.

Current limitation:

• Media endpoint currently supports one uploaded file per request (file field).

Note

The current visual direction is a personal adaptation of the earlier Afterword site I built on Pika.page. This repo is its own Eleventy implementation, but that earlier site was the design reference point.