Alt + Counsel Blog

A system of Claude Code agents and skills that automate the entire lifecycle of a Ghost blog post: pitch development, drafting, quality auditing, and publishing. Built for alt-counsel.com, a blog focused on legal technology for solo counsels and small teams.

Quick Start

Prerequisites: Node.js >= 16, Claude Code, a Ghost blog with Admin API access, ghst CLI.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/houfu/blog-alt-counsel.git
cd blog-alt-counsel

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Ghost credentials (see Environment Variables below)

# Install git hooks
npm run setup-hooks

# Set up Ghost CLI and MCP integration
npm install -g @tryghost/ghst
ghst auth login --url $GHOST_SITE_URL --staff-token $GHOST_ADMIN_API_KEY --site alt-counsel
claude mcp add ghost -- ghst mcp stdio --tools all

Environment Variables

Create a .env file from .env.example and fill in your values.

Required:

Variable	Description
GHOST_SITE_URL	Your Ghost site URL (e.g. https://yourblog.com)
GHOST_ADMIN_API_KEY	Ghost Admin API key in id:secret format (also used as ghst staff token)
GHOST_API_VERSION	Ghost API version (e.g. v6.0)

Optional:

Variable	Description
JINA_API_KEY	Enables web search via Jina AI MCP server

Key npm Scripts

Command	Description
npm run sync-ghost <slug>	Sync a published Ghost post back to the local repo
npm run setup-hooks	Install the pre-commit git hook

Ghost MCP Integration

Most Ghost CMS operations are handled via the ghst MCP server, which provides native tools directly in Claude Code. This includes searching posts, managing tags, viewing analytics, creating/updating posts, and managing members.

The MCP server is powered by @tryghost/ghst, Ghost's official CLI tool. Once authenticated and registered as an MCP server, Claude Code can interact with Ghost without custom scripts.

Custom scripts still used:

• scripts/publish-lexical.js — Converts markdown posts to Ghost's lexical format with custom features (bookmark cards, GitHub footer, table conversion)
• scripts/sync-from-ghost.js — Syncs Ghost metadata back to local markdown frontmatter

How It Works

The blog automation follows a five-phase workflow:

1. PITCH -- Define scope, direction, and tags for a new post.
2. WRITE -- Draft the content using Houfu's voice guide and structural patterns.
3. REVIEW -- Run quality checks: content audit, audience review, backlink curation, and proofreading.
4. POST -- Publish the draft to Ghost via publish-lexical.js or MCP tools.
5. CHECK -- Verify the published post and sync the repo.

Three audience reviewer personas provide targeted feedback during the review phase:

• Marcus Tan (Legal Tech Reviewer) -- Seasoned legal technologist evaluating technical depth and community value.
• Sarah Chen (Corporate Lawyer) -- Solo corporate lawyer testing for affordability and practical relevance.
• Wei Lin (Lawyer-Coder) -- Senior legal counsel who codes, checking for vulnerability and specificity.

See CLAUDE.md for the full workflow details, writing voice guide, and agent configuration.

License

MIT (c) 2025 Ang Hou Fu. See LICENSE for details.