Airwave documentation

A vibrant, gradient-glow Ghost theme for podcasts, radio shows and audio newsletters.

Thank you for choosing Airwave. This guide covers everything from uploading the theme to setting up paid memberships. If something is not covered here, write to support@codememory.com — we answer within one working day.

• Version1.0.0
• Ghost6.0.0 or later
• Live demoairwave.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com
• AuthorCode Memory

Highlights

• Homepage hero built around your newest episode
• Cover art with a vinyl record that slides out and spins while an episode plays
• One-click 'Play episode' button that drives the audio player in the show notes
• Big, glowing audio player styled for Ghost's audio card
• 'Listen on' links for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and RSS
• Episode cards with play buttons and a compact episode list
• Hosts row, Hosts page and host pages with gradient portrait rings
• Shows page: every tag as a colour tile with its cover image
• Soft animated colour auras and equaliser details (respect reduce motion)
• Text-only post template for announcements
• Membership page with tiers and a monthly/yearly switch
• Styled paywall for members-only and paid episodes
• Sign in, sign up and account pages
• Dark first, with light and system modes and a reader toggle
• Reading progress bar and image lightbox
• Self-hosted fonts (Unbounded, Figtree)
• Fully translatable, 19 theme settings, no jQuery

What is in the download

themeforest-airwave-ghost-theme/
├── documentation/                          ← you are here
└── airwave_1.0.0_for_ghost_6.0.0_or_later/
    ├── airwave.zip                          ← upload this file to Ghost
    └── airwave/                             ← the same theme, unzipped, with source files

You only need airwave.zip to use the theme. The unzipped folder is there for developers who want to change the code (see Development).

Installation

1. Sign in to your Ghost admin (yoursite.com/ghost).
2. Go to Settings → Design & branding → Customize → Change theme.
3. Click Upload theme and choose airwave.zip from the airwave_1.0.0_for_ghost_6.0.0_or_later folder. Do not upload the whole download.
4. Click Activate.

Updating

When a new version is released, download it from your ThemeForest Downloads page and upload the new airwave.zip the same way. Ghost asks whether to overwrite the existing theme — choose Overwrite. Your content, navigation and theme settings are kept.

If you edited the theme files yourself, keep a copy of your changes first: an update replaces every file.

Quick setup (10 minutes)

To make your site look like the demo, do these steps in order. Each one is explained in detail further down.

1. Brand: Settings → Design & branding → set the Accent colour, upload a logo and a site icon.
2. Navigation: Settings → Navigation → add your main links (see Navigation).
3. Pages: create the pages in Pages and templates and pick the matching template.
4. Membership: Settings → Membership → turn on signups; add paid tiers and connect Stripe (see Membership).
5. Theme settings: Design & branding → Theme tab (see Theme settings).
6. One tag per show: create a tag for each show, with a square cover image and a colour (Tags → Edit). The Shows page, episode chips and glows use them.
7. Listen on links: paste your show's Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube addresses in Design → Homepage. Empty links are hidden. RSS is always shown.
8. Hosts: give every staff user a profile photo and a short bio. They appear on the homepage and the Hosts page.

Logo, colours and fonts

Accent colour

Settings → Design & branding → Accent colour. Airwave uses it for buttons, links, highlights and the reading-progress bar. Airwave's buttons, player and highlights use a fixed sunset gradient (pink, orange, gold). The accent colour (#FF3D8B by default) is used for Ghost's own buttons and Portal.

Logo

Upload a logo in Design & branding → Brand. Without a logo, Airwave shows the site title in the theme's display font. A transparent PNG or SVG around 400 × 100 px works best. If your logo is dark, upload a light version in the Theme tab under Logo for dark mode.

Fonts

Airwave ships its own fonts (Figtree, Unbounded), hosted inside the theme — no requests to Google. To use different fonts, pick a Heading font and Body font in Design & branding → Brand. The theme follows your choice everywhere. Choose Theme default to go back.

Light and dark mode

In the Theme tab, Color scheme sets the default: Light, Dark or System (follows the reader's device). Readers can switch with the moon/sun button in the header or the switch in the menu; their choice is remembered on that device.

Navigation

Settings → Navigation. Primary navigation appears in the header and the full-screen menu. Secondary navigation appears in the footer. Links from the demo:

Tag pages have the address /tag/<tag-slug>/, author pages /author/<author-slug>/.

Theme settings

Settings → Design & branding → Customize. Theme settings are split between the Site wide, Homepage and Post tabs. Every setting:

Publishing an episode

1. Create a post. Use a square feature image of at least 1400 × 1400 px: it is your episode's cover art.
2. Near the top of the post, add an Audio card (type /audio) and upload your episode file (MP3 or M4A). Add a title and, optionally, a thumbnail.
3. Below it, write your show notes: timestamps, links, guest bios and a transcript if you have one.
4. Give the post its show's tag as the first tag.

The Play episode button in the episode header appears automatically when the post has an audio card. It starts and pauses the first audio card, and the record next to the cover art spins while it plays. The homepage Play episode button opens the episode with the player ready.

Homepage

1. Hero — your newest post with its cover art, the Hero label ("On air now"), a Play button and your Listen on links.
2. Latest episodes — the next six posts as cards. Rename it with Episodes title.
3. Hosts — every author with at least one post. Settings: Show hosts, Hosts title.
4. Members box — shown to visitors and free members when paid memberships are on (Premium title, Premium text).
5. From the archive — the rest of your episodes as a list with Load more.

Colour aura and dark mode

Show aura (Site wide tab) adds soft, slowly drifting colour glows behind the top of every page. Turn it off for a calmer look. The glows stop moving for readers who have reduce motion turned on.

Airwave is designed dark first. Color scheme can be set to Light or System, and readers can switch with the sun/moon button. Both modes are fully styled.

Pages and templates

Airwave includes page templates for the pages every membership site needs. Create a page in Ghost (Pages → New page), set its URL in the page settings, then choose the Template in the same panel.

Tip: the membership page shows your tiers automatically. Anything you write in the page body appears underneath — the demo uses toggle cards for a FAQ.

Post templates

Choose a template per post in the post settings panel → Template.

Membership, tiers and payments

Airwave is built for Ghost's members features: free and paid signups, tiers, a paywall and the Portal popup.

1. Turn on signups

Settings → Membership → Access → Who should be able to subscribe? → Anyone can sign up.

2. Connect Stripe

Settings → Membership → Tiers → Connect with Stripe. Use test mode first, then switch to live mode when you are ready to take real payments.

3. Create tiers

Settings → Membership → Tiers. Add a name, monthly and yearly prices, a description and benefits. Airwave shows every public tier on the membership page with a monthly/yearly switch, and marks the second tier as Most popular.

4. Members-only content

In a post's settings set Post access to Members only, Paid-members only or specific tiers. Readers without access see the start of the post and a paywall box that invites them to join or upgrade. To choose where the preview stops, add a Public preview divider in the editor (type /public).

5. Sign-up forms and buttons

Subscribe forms in the theme create free members and send a confirmation email. Every Subscribe, Sign in and Account button opens Ghost's Portal popup, so members can change plans, update cards and cancel without leaving your site.

Newsletters, comments and search

Newsletters: Settings → Newsletters. Posts can be sent by email when you publish. The theme's subscribe forms subscribe readers to your default newsletters.

Comments: Settings → Membership → Commenting. When on, comments appear under every post that the reader has access to.

Search: works out of the box. The search icon in the header opens Ghost's search; readers can also press Ctrl/⌘ + K.

Reading features

• Reading progress bar on posts, in the post's topic colour (can be turned off in the Post tab).
• Image lightbox: click any image or gallery photo in a post to see it full screen; use the arrow keys to move through a gallery.
• Every editor card is styled: images (regular, wide, full), galleries, quotes, callouts, toggles, bookmarks, buttons, videos, audio, files, products, headers and signups. Create a page with every card to check your brand — the demo's style guide shows them all.

Posts per page

The home, tag and author pages load 10 posts, then a Load more button fetches the next set without reloading the page. To change the number, edit "posts_per_page" in package.json, zip the theme folder and upload it again.

Translation

Every word in the theme can be translated.

1. In the unzipped theme folder, copy locales/en.json to a new file named after your language code, for example locales/fr.json.
2. Translate the values (the text on the right). Keep the keys (the text on the left) and anything in {curly braces} unchanged.
3. Zip the theme folder and upload it.
4. Settings → General → Publication language → enter the same code (fr).

Custom CSS

Small style changes do not need a new theme upload. Settings → Code injection → Site header:

<style>
.aura { opacity: .3; }
.btn-play { background: #ff3d8b; }
</style>

Development

For larger changes, work on the unzipped airwave/ folder. You need Node.js 20 or later.

cd airwave
npm install        # once
npm run dev        # rebuild CSS/JS on every change
npm run build      # one-off build
npm test           # check the theme with gscan
npm run zip        # dist/airwave.zip, ready to upload

CSS lives in src/css (one file per area, joined by main.css); JavaScript in src/js. Built files go to assets/built. Templates are Handlebars files in the theme root and in partials/.

Questions

Support

Support is included with your purchase and covers: answering questions about the theme's features, and fixing bugs. It does not cover custom changes or problems with third-party code.

Email support@codememory.com with your purchase code and your site address. See the changelog for what changed in each version and third-party materials for credits.