I pushed a fresh theme update live to Studio6 today – the kind of small, visible polish that keeps the site feeling tidy and intentional.
Because Studio6 runs on Ghost(Pro) – a managed environment that limits direct server access for stability and security – the right way to customise is to work locally, prove everything, and then upload a clean theme zip.
Over the past few months, that has become second nature: Docker Desktop on Windows 11 to manage a local Ghost installation, VS Code to edit and preview, and once it passes testing, a quick package-and-upload to the hosted admin.
Calm, predictable, and confidence-building.
With that workflow in place, today’s release was straightforward. I refined link styling in the sidebar, reorganised the tags (topics) list to make discovery easier, and introduced a small ranking badge that sits neatly in the sidebar. Once local testing showed everything was behaving as expected, packaging, uploading and activating the updated theme took moments – exactly how production should feel.
ChatGPT Plus is part of this loop. It helps me navigate options quickly, sanity-check approaches, and keep momentum when I might otherwise get stuck in the weeds.
It is not magic, though, and it is not perfect. Every so often, I need to remind it of what we have already done together, nudging it back to shared context. Still, with the right prompts and a local preview at hand, it is an essential tool that accelerates the how-to and the problem-solving.
If you are curious about how this approach has evolved, I captured the early phase in Refreshing the reader experience and followed with practical lessons in Fixes, refinements, and lessons learned in Ghost theme development. The same principle runs through all of it – small, safe, repeatable improvements that respect the reader.
- Refreshing the reader experience: https://www.nevillehobson.io/refreshing-the-reader-experience/ (14 September 2025)
- Fixes, refinements, and lessons learned in Ghost theme development: https://www.nevillehobson.io/fixes-refinements-and-lessons-learned-in-ghost-theme-development/ (21 September 2025)
I have yet to find a more effective, confidence-building way to develop a Ghost theme than this setup. It lets a non-theme-developer like me make precise changes, see the results instantly, and publish without drama – all in service of a clearer, more dependable reading experience.
Related Reading:
- From WordPress to Ghost: Reflections on a Fresh Start (31 March 2025)
