Connect a Ghost publication

Ghost is the simplest native connection. There is no site to choose and no field mapping; the Ghost site URL is the destination, and the Admin API key is the only credential. Serpio sends the article as HTML and Ghost converts it into its editor format.

Before you start

• A paid Serpio plan.
• Administrator access to the Ghost site. Only administrators can create custom integrations.
• A public Ghost URL. Serpio calls the Admin API under /ghost/api/admin/ on that URL.

Create the Admin API key in Ghost

1. 1

   Open Integrations

   In Ghost Admin, open Settings → Integrations.

2. 2

   Add a custom integration

   Press Add custom integration, name it Serpio, and save. Ghost shows two keys for the new integration.

3. 3

   Copy the Admin API key

   Copy the Admin API key. It has the form id:secret: a short id, a colon, and a long hexadecimal secret. Do not copy the Content API key; it can only read published content.

Connect in Serpio

1. 1

   Open the Ghost card

   Under Connections, open Ghost and press Connect.

2. 2

   Fill in the form

   Enter the Ghost site URL, for example https://blog.example.com, and paste the Admin API key.

3. 3

   Set delivery

   Leave Scheduled articles on Review before sending and When Serpio sends an article on Create a draft for the first run.

4. 4

   Press Test & save

   Serpio signs a short-lived token with the key and reads one post id from Ghost's protected posts endpoint. It deliberately does not use the public site endpoint, which answers even when the key is wrong. On success the card reads Connected and the dialog shows Connected as followed by the site title. Nothing is written to Ghost.

Draft or live

Create a draft creates the post with Ghost status draft. It appears in Ghost Admin under Posts, filtered to Drafts, and is not on your site until you publish it there. Publish live creates it with status published, visible at its Ghost URL as soon as Ghost confirms. Changing the setting only affects new deliveries; an existing Ghost draft stays a draft until you publish it in Ghost.

What Serpio creates

One Ghost post per article, sent as HTML with source=html so Ghost converts it into its editor format.

Title, slug, body

Sent as they are in Serpio. Ghost may append a number to the slug if it clashes with an existing post.

Excerpt

Serpio's summary becomes the custom excerpt. Ghost caps it at 300 characters, so longer summaries are cut before sending.

Feature image

The hero image URL becomes the feature image, with alt text trimmed to 125 characters.

SEO fields

Meta title (up to 300 characters) and meta description (up to 500) fill Ghost's SEO panel.

Canonical URL

Sent only when the article explicitly has one. Serpio never invents a canonical URL.

Tags

Article keywords become Ghost tags, up to 20.

Serpio does not set an author, a newsletter, or member visibility. Those follow your Ghost defaults for API-created posts.

Check the first draft in Ghost

Ghost converts incoming HTML to its editor format, and that conversion can be lossy for structures the editor does not support. Open the first draft in Ghost Admin and compare headings, lists, tables, links, and the feature image against the Serpio preview. Then preview it in your active theme. If anything is off, keep the connection on Create a draft and fix the post in Ghost before publishing. Use Publish live only after a few drafts have come through cleanly.

If the key is rotated or revoked

Regenerating the integration in Ghost invalidates the old key. The next delivery fails with an authorization error and the card changes to Reconnect. Open it, press Reconnect credentials, paste the new Admin API key, and press Test & reconnect. Scheduled-delivery and draft settings are kept. Test connection re-runs the same check as setup without creating a post, which is a quick way to confirm the key still works. More causes are listed in Troubleshooting connections.