Moving to Ghost: Why I Ditched Nuxt Content for a Real Blog

My blog lived in my portfolio repo. Markdown files in content/blog/, rendered by Nuxt Content. It worked. Until it didn't.

The Problem With Nuxt Content

It's not a blog. It's a content renderer.

Every time I wanted to write, I had to:

  1. Open VS Code
  2. Create a markdown file
  3. Write frontmatter by hand
  4. Commit and push
  5. Wait for the entire portfolio to rebuild

Want to fix a typo? Full rebuild. Want to schedule a post? Write a script. Want comments? Integrate a third-party service. Want RSS? Build it yourself.

I wasn't blogging. I was maintaining a static site generator.

Why Ghost

Because it's a blog platform, not a framework.

  • Admin UI: Write in a browser. Edit published posts. No git commits for typos.
  • Scheduling: Built-in. Write now, publish later.
  • API: First-class. My portfolio can fetch latest posts without rebuilding.
  • Themes: Handlebars templates. Full control, no framework overhead.
  • Self-hosted: My server, my data, my rules.

Ghost does one thing: blogging. It does it well.

Why Self-Hosted

Because I already run the infrastructure.

I have a server. It runs Docker. It has Traefik. Adding Ghost was:

  • One compose.prod.yml file
  • MySQL 5.7 container (because my CPU is old)
  • Traefik labels for SSL
  • Done

No monthly fees. No vendor lock-in. No "your plan doesn't include X" bullshit.

The Migration

17 posts. 42 tags. One Python script.

# Parse Nuxt Content markdown
frontmatter, body = parse_frontmatter(content)

# Convert to Ghost JSON
mobiledoc = {
    "version": "0.3.1",
    "cards": [["markdown", {"markdown": body}]],
    "sections": [[10, 0]]
}

# Export
export = {
    'db': [{
        'data': {
            'posts': posts,
            'tags': tags,
            'posts_tags': relationships
        }
    }]
}

Import via Ghost Admin API. Fix tags. Done.

The Custom Theme

Because default themes are boring.

I built "cativo-terminal" with:

  • Tokyo Night Storm palette
  • Monospace fonts (Geist Mono)
  • Terminal aesthetic (window chrome, cursor, prompt)
  • Hybrid homepage (hero + feed)
  • Sidebar TOC for posts
  • Terminal grep-style search
  • Dark/light mode

It looks like my GitHub profile README. Because consistency matters.

The Infrastructure

Docker Compose + Traefik + GitHub Actions.

services:
  ghost:
    image: ghost:5-alpine
    environment:
      database__client: mysql
      database__connection__host: db
      url: https://blog.cativo.dev
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

  db:
    image: mysql:5.7
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "mysqladmin", "ping", "-h", "localhost"]
      interval: 3s
      retries: 10

GitHub Actions for releases:

  • Merge release/* to master → create GitHub Release
  • Release published → deploy to production
  • Theme zipped and uploaded as release asset

GitFlow workflow. Automated deploys. No manual steps.

What I Learned

Nuxt Content is great for documentation. Not for blogging.

If you're building a blog:

  • Use a blog platform (Ghost, WordPress, whatever)
  • Don't build your own unless that's the project
  • Self-hosting is easier than you think

If you're building documentation:

  • Nuxt Content is perfect
  • Keep it in the repo
  • Version it with the code

The Result

blog.cativo.dev

  • 17 posts migrated
  • Custom theme deployed
  • Admin UI for writing
  • API for portfolio integration
  • RSS feed (built-in)
  • Comments (Giscus)
  • Search (terminal grep style)

I can write in a browser. Edit published posts. Schedule content. No rebuilds. No commits.

That's what a blog should be.

Stack: Ghost 5, MySQL 5.7, Docker, Traefik, GitHub Actions
Theme: Custom Handlebars (Tokyo Night Storm)
Hosting: Self-hosted on my server
Domain: blog.cativo.dev

The code is on GitHub: cativo23/ghost-blog