Creator — Building a Ghost Theme (Work Log)

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Building Creator, a free open-source multipurpose Ghost theme — documented step by step, in the open.

Build log 18 Jul 2026 1 min read

Part 18 — Understanding routes.yaml in Ghost

The big one. routes.yaml is what turns Ghost from a blog into a multipurpose site.

Three parts

  • routes — map a URL to a template (static pages).
  • collections — group posts by filter into their own URL space + template.
  • taxonomies — tag and author archive URLs.

A collection

collections:
  /projects/:
    permalink: /projects/{slug}/
    filter: tag:hash-project
    template: projects

Gotchas I hit

  • Ghost requires trailing slashes on custom routes.
  • Route paths can't contain dots (/sw.js/ 404s).
  • Upload via Settings → Labs; a bad file can hide content — validate carefully.
This is the single most powerful, least-understood part of Ghost theming.

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