Get started
Get started is a wizard of seven steps that takes Ghostwriter from installed to writing in your voice. It's shown until it's finished or hidden.
Once Ghostwriter is installed and has a key, open Ghostwriter in the panel's navigation. Until setup is done it opens on Get started, on the first step not done yet. The steps are listed across the top, each marked Done, Optional or Working…. Nothing needs ticking off: each step works out from the app whether it's done. Next and Back move between steps. You can skip a step: click any step at the top to go straight to it, or to do it again.
Steps 3 to 6 each make one or more model calls, which run as queued jobs. The page checks back by itself until each one is done, and you can leave it meanwhile.
To link to a step, add ?step= and its name: key, forms, voice, kinds, imagery, plan or write. For example, /admin/ghostwriter/get-started?step=voice. Continue on the Overview and on the widget opens the next step this way.
1. Connect a model
Done once the writing provider's key is in .env. The step names the provider Ghostwriter writes with, and the variable its key is read from. If another provider's key is set already, it suggests choosing that provider in the settings.
2. Check your forms
Ghostwriter reads each resource's form and shows how many of its fields it can write, for example "Posts: 5 of 8 fields to write." Anything it couldn't read is listed. Click Read the forms again after you change a form. See How forms are read.
3. Learn your voice
Under Learn the voice from, tick the resources to learn from (all of them, unless you untick some). Then click Write the voice guide. Ghostwriter reads their published records and writes the voice guide. This takes a minute or so. Once it's written, the step shows the start of the guide, with Review the guide.
4. Teach it your kinds of content
When Get started opens, Ghostwriter looks through each resource and suggests the kinds of content in it, such as "Case study" or "Service page". Each resource it looks at is one model call. It looks at a resource the first time, and again after ten new records. A resource needs at least two published records.
Review the suggestions here: Learn this, Learn all N or Not this. Suggest kinds beside a resource looks at it again. With more than one resource, Suggest kinds everywhere looks at them all.
Get started is the only place kinds are suggested without someone asking. Elsewhere, they wait for Suggest kinds or Suggest kinds everywhere, so no model call happens unless someone clicks. To stop it here too, turn off Suggest kinds of content automatically in the settings. See Kinds of content.
5. Describe your images (optional)
Click Describe the images. Ghostwriter writes the image style guide from the pictures your records use. Once it's written, the step shows its start, with Review the image style.
6. Plan what to write (optional)
Click Suggest ideas. Ghostwriter suggests records the app is missing, for the content plan. Add a line under Anything to steer it (optional) if you like, such as "More for schools."
7. Write something
Opens a new record with Ghostwriter beside it. See Writing a new record.
Finishing and hiding Get started
Only the required steps count towards "N of M done" at the top. The two optional steps don't.
Finish, on the last step, goes to the Overview. Once every required step is done, Get started leaves Ghostwriter's tabs, and the Ghostwriter item opens on the Overview. A small card there says you're set up.
To hide Get started from the Overview too, click Hide Get started at the top of Get started, or Hide on the Overview's card. Only people who manage Ghostwriter see these buttons.
To bring it back, click Show Get started at the foot of the Overview, or turn on Show Get started in the settings. If show_get_started is set in config/ghostwriter.php, that decides, and the buttons aren't shown.
The steps are in the order that gives good drafts soonest. The voice guide matters most, because every draft follows it. Kinds come next, because a kind gives the writer the right questions and examples. Nothing depends on the image style or the plan.
Next: API keys.