| Feature | Ghost Blog (CMS) | Hugo (Static Site Generator) | Obsidian (Knowledge Base) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content Format | Markdown (stored in a database) | Markdown (stored as flat files) | Markdown (stored as flat files in a “vault”) |
| Internal Linking | Standard Markdown [Text](/slug/) or @-mentions | Hugo {{< ref "path" >}} shortcodes (or standard Markdown []()) | WikiLink `[[File Name |
| Philosophy | Easy-to-use CMS, database-driven, focused on publishing & newsletters | Static site generation, fast builds, content in flat files | Personal knowledge management, local focus, bidirectional linking |
| Syntax Compatibility | Standard Markdown only; no native shortcodes or wikilinks | Only standard Markdown/Hugo shortcodes natively; no native wikilinks | Custom wikilink syntax; requires workarounds for other systems |
Alignment Summary:
- Ghost vs. Obsidian: They are used for different purposes (publishing vs. personal knowledge management) and their link syntaxes are incompatible out-of-the-box. You typically write content in Obsidian and copy/paste it into Ghost, losing the wikilink functionality during the transfer.
- Ghost vs. Hugo: Both use Markdown, but Hugo is a build tool that generates static HTML, while Ghost is a dynamic CMS. Hugo’s unique shortcode syntax is not supported in Ghost’s editor. They can be integrated (e.g., using Ghost as a “headless CMS” to feed content to Hugo), but this is a complex technical setup.
- Common Ground: The main alignment is that all three platforms fundamentally use Markdown as the basis for content creation. However, the specific syntax for internal file references is where they differ significantly.
In conclusion, you cannot use the Hugo shortcodes or Obsidian wikilinks directly within the standard Ghost editor. Ghost relies on a user-friendly editor that converts standard Markdown links ([Link Text](/page-slug)) into rich text, and offers an in-editor search function to link to existing posts via a simple @ mention.