Advanced Customization

Most customers should use Ghost Admin’s Brand and Theme settings. This page is for experienced users who want to adjust the theme through an available web code editor or custom code area.

Theme files

Cookory is organized into:

*.hbs                 page and custom templates
partials/             shared header, footer, cards, and recipe tools
assets/css/           screen, recipe, brand, and customization styles
assets/js/cookory.js  theme interactions and recipe enhancement
assets/images/        theme screenshots and image assets
routes.yaml           recipe archive, search, tag, and author URLs
package.json          Ghost metadata and theme settings

Safe customization order

1. Use Ghost Brand settings for colors and typography.
2. Use Theme settings for layout, labels, visibility, and recipe controls.
3. Use custom CSS for small visual changes.
4. Edit Handlebars or JavaScript only when a structural or behavioral change is required.

Prefer custom CSS for changes such as spacing, button colors, or card borders. Keep selectors scoped to existing classes, for example .home-intro .intro-copy, and avoid replacing default.hbs unless you understand Ghost theme helpers.

Important warnings

• Back up your current theme before editing.
• Keep a copy of every custom change outside Ghost.
• Updates may overwrite edits made inside theme files.
• Invalid Handlebars, JavaScript, JSON, or YAML can make the theme fail to load.
• Do not remove {{ghost_head}}, {{ghost_foot}}, {{body_class}}, or {{asset}} usage.
• Do not remove recipe data attributes if you want recipe tools and structured data to work.

Custom settings reference

Theme settings are grouped into Site-wide, Homepage, and Post sections. Site-wide controls the background color, dark mode, search, header/footer style, and footer note; secondary navigation is always displayed. Homepage controls the three hero text fields, section titles, subtitles, and newsletter visibility. Post controls related recipes and recipe tools.

Restore and update

If a customization causes an error, restore the original marketplace zip and reapply only the necessary CSS or code. Before updating Cookory, export or copy custom code, install the new zip, test the site, and reapply compatible changes.