Installation

Download and upload

1. Download the latest Cookory zip from the marketplace or your customer account.
2. In Ghost Admin, open Settings → Design & branding.
3. Select Change theme, upload the zip, and activate Cookory.
4. Open your site in a new browser tab and confirm the homepage loads correctly.

The marketplace zip is already prepared for Ghost. Do not unzip it, rename internal files, or add development folders before uploading.

Required Ghost configuration

After activation, open Design & branding → Brand and set:

• Publication title and description.
• Logo and publication icon.
• Publication cover image. Cookory uses this as the homepage hero image.
• Accent color, heading font, and body font.

Configure primary navigation for your main pages and secondary navigation for supporting links. Include a link to /recipes/ so visitors can reach the recipe archive.

The /recipes/ and /search/ pages are custom routes provided by routes.yaml. If either URL shows a 404 in a local Ghost installation, open Settings → Labs → Routes, upload the theme’s routes.yaml, save the configuration, and restart Ghost if you are running it locally. Then refresh the site and confirm the route is active.

Members setup

If you use newsletters or paid memberships, enable Members and configure Portal in Ghost Admin. Cookory’s signup and account buttons use Ghost Portal links; no separate membership plugin is required.

Updating Cookory

Download the new marketplace zip and upload it from the theme screen. Review your settings and test a recipe after activation. Ghost theme settings are stored by Ghost, but custom edits made to theme files may be lost during an update.

Troubleshooting

• Upload rejected: download the zip again and upload the original marketplace file.
• Homepage hero is blank: add a Publication cover under Brand settings.
• Recipes link fails: verify the navigation URL is /recipes/, confirm routes.yaml is loaded under Settings → Labs → Routes, and restart local Ghost after changing routes.
• Portal buttons do nothing: enable Members and confirm Portal is configured.
• Old design is visible: clear browser/cache layers and confirm Cookory is the active theme.