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Ghost Writr Developers

Astro — overview

@ghostwritr/astro is a Content Layer loader. It pulls your site’s published articles into a content collection at build time — no file syncing, no CMS, no API key. Requires Astro 5+.

You define a collection with ghostwritr({ siteId }), and from then on it’s a normal Astro collection: getCollection, render, <Content />. The Markdown body arrives pre-compiled, the full article shape lands on entry.data, and removed articles drop out on the next build.

The 30-second example

Section titled “The 30-second example”
npm install @ghostwritr/astro
src/content.config.ts
import { defineCollection } from "astro:content";
import { ghostwritr } from "@ghostwritr/astro";


export const collections = {
  articles: defineCollection({
    loader: ghostwritr({ siteId: import.meta.env.GHOSTWRITR_SITE_ID }),
  }),
};
src/pages/blog/[slug].astro
---
import { getCollection, render } from "astro:content";


export const getStaticPaths = async () =>
  (await getCollection("articles")).map((p) => ({ params: { slug: p.id }, props: { p } }));


const { p } = Astro.props;
const { Content } = await render(p);
---
<h1>{p.data.title}</h1>
<Content />

That’s a statically-generated blog reading from the keyless feed. The quickstart fills in SEO and the byline.

Keyless by design

Section titled “Keyless by design”

Reads hit your site’s static feed at feeds.ghostwritr.io/{siteId}/. The siteId is the unguessable read capability — there is no API key and no authed fallback. A missing feed fails closed: the loader throws a GhostwritrError with code NOT_FOUND and the build stops. See Keyless reads and The content feed.

Build-time only — pair with a redeploy hook

Section titled “Build-time only — pair with a redeploy hook”

The loader runs during astro build. Articles published after a build won’t appear until the next build, so wire a deploy hook to the signed feed.updated webhook to rebuild on publish. See Redeploy on publish and Instant updates.

Where to go next

Section titled “Where to go next”