Ghost's New Theme Editor: How to Edit Theme Code in Ghost Admin (2026)

Until recently, changing one line in a Ghost theme meant a small ritual: download the theme as a zip, unpack it, edit the file on your computer, zip it up again and upload it. In May 2026 Ghost removed most of those steps. There's now an Edit code option in Ghost Admin that opens your theme's files in a code editor in the browser.

This guide covers what the editor does, how to use it, what to watch out for, and when a different tool is the better fit. The screenshots are from a live Ghost 6 site.

What Ghost announced

Ghost announced "Easy theme editing" on its changelog on 14 May 2026. In Ghost's words, it lets you make "quick changes to your theme code, directly in Ghost".

• Ghost(Pro): available straight away.
• Self-hosted Ghost: update to the latest version. It shipped in Ghost 6.39.0 on 15 May, according to AlternativeTo.
• Where it came from: community member Murat Çorlu first built it as a browser-based add-on, and Ghost merged it into Ghost itself, as the forum announcement explains.

How to open the theme editor

1. In Ghost Admin, go to Settings → Theme.
2. Next to your active theme, click the … menu.
3. Choose Edit code.

What you can do in it

The editor opens full screen, with your theme's files on the left and the code on the right.

• Browse every file: templates (.hbs), package.json, partials and the assets folder with your CSS and JavaScript.
• Edit with syntax highlighting: Handlebars, HTML, CSS, JSON and JavaScript are coloured, with line numbers and code folding.
• Add, rename and delete files: handy for creating a custom template such as custom-landing.hbs.
• Save: your changes go live on the site.

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Good uses for it

• Fixing a typo or a hard-coded link in a template.
• Small CSS tweaks: a colour, a font size, some spacing.
• Adding a tracking or verification snippet to default.hbs, when Code Injection isn't enough.
• Changing posts_per_page or image sizes in package.json.
• Creating a simple custom template by copying page.hbs and changing it.

What to watch out for

• Download a copy first. The same menu has Download. Take a zip before you change anything, so you can upload it again if something breaks.
• Updates replace your edits. Your changes live in the installed copy of the theme. When you upload a newer version, from the theme's author or from a theme builder, its files replace yours. Keep a note of what you changed, or keep your own copy of the theme.
• There's no preview. The editor has no preview pane, and saving changes the live site. Make small changes, save, and check the site in another tab.
• It's still code. You need to know a little Handlebars, HTML and CSS. One unclosed tag can break a page, and the editor won't redesign a layout for you.
• New templates and Ghost Admin. If you add a custom template and Ghost Admin is already open in another tab, reload that tab before looking for the new template in a page's Template menu. Ghost itself picks up new templates as soon as they're saved.

When you need more than a code editor

The code editor is perfect for small, precise changes. It's less suited to designing: a new homepage layout, a landing page, a different post page, or a theme that looks like your brand rather than its author's. Those take many edits across many files, and you're working blind without a preview.

That's what a visual theme editor is for. Ectobuilder builds a complete Ghost theme from ready-made sections that you edit on the page, with a live preview on desktop and mobile, then publishes it to your site in one click. You can also connect an AI assistant such as Claude and ask it to make the changes for you.

The two work well together. Ectobuilder exports a standard Ghost theme, so you can still open it in Ghost's code editor for a one-line tweak. Just remember that the next publish from Ectobuilder replaces the theme, so make lasting changes in Ectobuilder.

Comparing your options? See Best Ghost Themes in 2026: Free, Paid and Custom.

FAQ

Sources

• Ghost changelog: Easy theme editing
• Ghost Forum: Easy theme editing
• AlternativeTo: Ghost introduces in-browser theme code editing

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