Glossary

Short, plain-language definitions of the recurring terms in Signal's documentation. Each entry links to the page where the concept is put to work.

Chapters

A list of timestamped sections for an episode, shown as a tappable list so listeners can jump straight to a part. You add them in the episode body as a chapters code block. See Transcripts & chapters.

Code injection

A pair of boxes in Ghost Admin (Settings → Code injection) where you can paste CSS or scripts that load on every page. It's the safe place for visual tweaks and for configuring features like listen links — anything you put there survives theme updates, unlike edits to the theme files. Signal exposes a documented set of data-* hooks for styling. See Code injection.

Custom template

A purpose-built page design Signal applies automatically — by URL (Episodes, Library) or by page slug (Subscribe, Guests, Hosts, Contact). See Page templates.

data-* hooks (selector hooks)

The stable, named handles Signal attaches to every major part of the page — data-region, data-component, data-variant, and data-part. You target them from Code injection to restyle or hide things, and they don't change between theme updates. See the Hook reference.

Episode

A single podcast or video instalment. In Signal every Ghost post is an episode, served at /episodes/{slug}/. See Content model.

Guest

A person featured on an episode. Guests are Ghost authors with the Contributor role; their profiles live at /people/{slug}/ and they appear in the searchable guest directory. See Content model.

Host

The person who runs the show. Hosts are Ghost authors with an editorial role (Owner, Administrator, Editor, Author). On an episode, the first author is the host ("Hosted by") and the rest are guests ("With"). See Content model.

Internal tag

A Ghost tag whose name starts with # (for example #audio). Internal tags never appear to readers — no archive page, no tag list — but Signal reads them to change how an episode renders. You add them in Post settings → Tags. See Content model.

Library

A reader's private, browser-local collection of saved episodes and watch progress, available at /library/. Nothing is sent to a server or tied to an account — it lives in the visitor's own browser. See Library.

Listen links

The "listen everywhere" links (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, RSS, and more) shown on episodes and the subscribe page. You configure them once via Code Injection. See Listen links.

Persistent player

The floating mini-player that keeps a video or audio episode playing as the visitor scrolls and moves between pages. Controlled by the Enable persistent player setting. See Media player.

Portal

Ghost's built-in membership pop-up — the sign-up, sign-in, and account-management overlay. Signal's subscribe buttons and member links hand off to Portal for signup and Stripe payment. See Membership.

Re-hosting

Uploading a podcast's audio to your own Ghost media library instead of playing it from its original feed URL. Signal Tools can re-host on import, which freezes the audio so it stays in sync with the transcript even if the source feed swaps in dynamic ads. See Signal Tools: Podcasts.

Self-hiding section

A homepage section that appears on its own only when it has something to show, and disappears when it does not. Signal builds its whole homepage from these, so you compose the page by adding content, not by toggling settings. See Homepage.

Show / Topic

A subject or series an episode belongs to. Shows and topics are Ghost tags, with archives at /topics/{slug}/. See Content model.

Signal Tools

The companion browser extension included with your Signal license, activated with the same key. It turns a YouTube video, audio file, or podcast feed into a ready-to-publish episode, and adds guests to your Ghost staff. See Signal Tools.

Slug

The URL-friendly version of a title — lowercase, hyphens instead of spaces — that identifies a post, page, tag, or author in its web address. Several Signal features look pages up by slug (home-hero, about, sponsors, support, newsletter-cta), so the slug must match exactly. You can check and edit it in the editor's settings panel. See Homepage.

Staff Access Token

A personal Ghost credential (Ghost Admin → your profile → Staff Access Token) that authenticates as you. Signal Tools needs one from an Owner or Administrator to add guests; a custom integration's Admin API key can only create episode drafts. See Signal Tools: Setup.

Transcript

A timed, searchable text version of an episode that follows along as it plays, with click-to-seek and optional word-by-word highlighting. You add it in the episode body as a vtt code block. See Transcripts & chapters.

WebVTT

The standard caption/subtitle text format (a .vtt file's contents) Signal uses for transcripts. Paste it into a vtt code block in the episode body — Signal Tools produces it for you. See Transcripts & chapters.