Mailchimp To Ghost

Sync Newsletter Skill

Fetch newsletter posts from a Mailchimp RSS feed and sync them to a Ghost blog as properly formatted posts with uploaded images and horizontal rules.

Overview

This skill automates the complete workflow of:

1. Fetching newsletter content from Mailchimp's RSS feed
2. Converting HTML email content to clean markdown (preserving horizontal rules, links, formatting)
3. Downloading images from Mailchimp CDN
4. Uploading images to Ghost
5. Publishing to Ghost as Lexical-format posts with local images

Requirements

• Python 3 with packages: beautifulsoup4, requests, feedparser, markdownify, lxml
• ghst CLI for Ghost publishing (see ghst skill)
• Environment variables:
  • GHOST_URL - Your Ghost instance URL
  • GHOST_STAFF_ACCESS_TOKEN - Ghost Admin API token

Installation

Python Dependencies

cd skills/sync-newsletter
pip install beautifulsoup4 requests feedparser markdownify lxml

Ghost CLI (ghst)

Install globally via npm:

npm install -g @tryghost/ghst

Configuration

Set up your Ghost credentials in ~/.openclaw/.env:

GHOST_URL="https://myghostblog.com"
GHOST_STAFF_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-token-id:secret"

Usage

⚠️ CRITICAL: Always Re-fetch First

You MUST re-fetch the RSS feed every time before syncing to ensure you're working with the latest newsletter data. The cache may contain stale or previously-processed entries.

# 1. Clear any stale cache and fetch fresh from RSS (ALWAYS DO THIS FIRST)
rm -rf cache/ && python3 scripts/fetch_markdown.py

# 2. Sync to Ghost (downloads images, uploads them, creates draft post)
python3 scripts/sync_to_ghost.py

Why this matters: The RSS feed only shows the most recent newsletter(s). If you sync without re-fetching, you may:

• Create duplicate posts (Ghost will add -2, -3 suffixes to slugs)
• Miss new newsletters entirely
• Process outdated content

Cache Management

All cached data is stored in the cache/ folder:

• cache/feed_cache.xml — RSS feed cache
• cache/newsletter_markdown_1.md — Generated markdown

To force a fresh fetch, delete the cache:

rm -rf cache/

Deduplication

The sync script checks Ghost for existing posts with similar titles before creating. If a match is found, it warns you and exits. Use --force to create anyway:

python3 scripts/sync_to_ghost.py --force

What Gets Converted

From Mailchimp HTML

The fetch script extracts and converts:

• Text content — Paragraphs, headings, lists
• Formatting — Bold, italic, links
• Images — With filtering for social icons and spacers
• Horizontal rules — mceDividerBlockContainer → ---
• Boilerplate removal — Unsubscribe links, preview text, social icons

To Ghost Lexical Format

The sync script creates Lexical JSON with:

• Paragraphs with inline formatting (bold, italic, links)
• Line breaks preserved within paragraphs
• Headings (H2, H3)
• Images uploaded to Ghost (not hotlinked)
• Horizontal rules — --- → horizontalrule nodes
• Blockquotes
• Buttons — Call-to-action links → Lexical button nodes (center-aligned by default)

Button Handling

Mailchimp button blocks are converted to Ghost's native Lexical button nodes:

Markdown pattern: [button: text](url)

Lexical output:

{
  "type": "button",
  "version": 1,
  "buttonText": "Read More",
  "alignment": "center",
  "buttonUrl": "https://example.com"
}

Configuration:

• Buttons are center-aligned by default (can be changed in sync_to_ghost.py)
• Button text is extracted from the Mailchimp button link
• URL is cleaned of Mailchimp tracking parameters

Script Reference

scripts/fetch_markdown.py

Fetches Mailchimp RSS and converts to clean markdown.

Features:

• Strips Mailchimp boilerplate (social icons, unsubscribe links, preview text)
• Detects mceDividerBlockContainer elements and converts to --- horizontal rules
• Removes tiny spacer images and layout tables
• Deduplicates repeated content blocks
• Preserves actual newsletter content, images, and formatting

Configuration:

• RSS_URL — The Mailchimp feed URL (hardcoded in script)
• limit — Number of entries to process (default: 1)
• Output: cache/newsletter_markdown_N.md

scripts/sync_to_ghost.py

Complete sync workflow: downloads images, uploads to Ghost, creates Lexical-format draft post.

Features:

• Deduplication — Checks for existing posts by title
• Image handling — Downloads from Mailchimp CDN, uploads to Ghost via ghst image upload
• URL mapping — Replaces external image URLs with Ghost-hosted URLs
• Lexical conversion — Full markdown → Lexical JSON with:
  • Paragraphs with inline bold/italic/link formatting
  • Line breaks within paragraphs (preserves ``-style breaks)
  • Headings (H2, H3; skips H1 as it's the post title)
  • Images with alt text
  • Horizontal rules (--- → horizontalrule nodes)
  • Blockquotes
  • Buttons — [button: text](url) pattern → center-aligned Lexical button nodes
• Draft creation — Creates post with newsletter tag as draft

Command-line options:

• --force — Bypass deduplication check

Example: Manual Workflow

# Navigate to skill directory
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/sync-newsletter

# Fetch latest newsletter
python3 scripts/fetch_markdown.py

# Review the markdown
cat cache/newsletter_markdown_1.md

# Sync to Ghost (creates draft)
python3 scripts/sync_to_ghost.py

# Publish via Ghost admin when ready

Troubleshooting

Duplicate posts created (slug has -2, -3 suffix)

Cause: You synced without re-fetching the RSS feed first. The cache contained an already-published newsletter.

Fix: Always clear cache and re-fetch before syncing:

rm -rf cache/
python3 scripts/fetch_markdown.py
python3 scripts/sync_to_ghost.py

No horizontal rules in output

Delete cache and re-fetch:

rm -rf cache/
python3 scripts/fetch_markdown.py

Images not uploading

Check Ghost API is accessible:

ghst site info --json

Duplicate posts created

The deduplication should prevent this. If it fails, check the existing post title matches exactly.

Buttons not rendering as styled buttons

Cause: The markdown may contain plain links instead of the button pattern.

Fix: Check the generated markdown has [button: text](url) pattern (not just [text](url)). If buttons aren't detected, the Mailchimp HTML structure may have changed.

Notes

• The conversion is tuned for Mailchimp's HTML structure; other newsletter platforms may need adjustments
• Images are uploaded to Ghost and replaced in the content (no hotlinking)
• Horizontal rules from Mailchimp dividers are preserved as --- in markdown and converted to Ghost's horizontalrule nodes
• The script preserves the conversational formatting with line breaks within paragraphs
• Buttons — Mailchimp button blocks are converted to center-aligned Ghost Lexical button nodes using the [button: text](url) pattern