# Upstream sources — ghost

| service | image | source repo | releases / changelog |
|---------|-------|-------------|----------------------|
| app | ghost | https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost | https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/releases |
| db | mysql | https://github.com/mysql/mysql-server | https://dev.mysql.com/doc/relnotes/mysql/8.4/en/ |

## Standing notes
- Ghost 6.x stores ALL content in MySQL (`database__client: mysql`), NOT sqlite. Marker/test rows live in the `ghost` DB.
- MySQL 8.0 → 8.4 (LTS): no application-level migrations needed for Ghost's usage. Default value changes are internal to InnoDB (e.g. `innodb_io_capacity` 200→10000, `innodb_flush_method` fsync→O_DIRECT). The `ci_marker` table and Ghost schema survive the upgrade intact.
- The recipe ships a literal `start_period: 15m` on both `app` and `db` healthchecks (added in recipe PR #1) to handle cc-ci's slow first-boot MySQL schema migration (~6-15 min). The `compose.ccci.yml` overlay mirrors this for the upgrade-tier BASE deploy.
- Ghost 6.x Docker images use the `-alpine` variant; pin to `X.Y.Z-alpine` (not `X.Y.Z-alpine3.NN`) for simplicity.
- **MySQL 9.x is NOT supported by Ghost — do NOT bump mysql past 8.x.** Ghost's official docs
  (https://ghost.org/docs/faq/supported-databases/) state verbatim: "MySQL 8 is the only supported
  database in production." Ghost is built for "Ubuntu, MySQL 8, nginx and Node.js LTS"; MySQL 9.x is
  not mentioned anywhere in their compatibility docs. Additionally MySQL 9.0.0 itself was pulled by
  Oracle ("no longer available for download ... removed due to a critical issue"), and 9.x removes the
  `mysql_native_password` auth plugin (deprecated in 8.0) and now ENFORCES inline foreign-key
  specifications (previously silently ignored) — both real breakage surfaces Ghost has not certified
  against. `abra recipe upgrade` will keep flagging 9.0–9.7 as available; treat that as a
  false-positive candidate list and SKIP (staying on the `8.4` LTS tag, which resolves to the latest
  8.4.x patch). Re-evaluate only if Ghost publishes MySQL 9 support guidance. (Confirmed still-true
  on 2026-06-22.)