Evaluate self-hosted short URLs for dotfiles bootstrap

[kergoth]

Summary

A self-controlled short URL would make it easier to share or type bootstrap and clone entrypoints during early system setup.

Goal

Evaluate whether a homelab-hosted URL shortener should be used for dotfiles bootstrap and related early setup links.

Questions to answer

• Which shortener or redirect mechanism is the best fit for a personally hosted, low-maintenance setup?
• Should this be a full shortener service or a simpler static redirect setup?
• Which URLs should be covered, if any:
  • bootstrap entrypoint
  • clone URL
  • setup documentation
• Is the operational overhead justified relative to the convenience?

Done looks like

• A target approach is selected, rejected, or explicitly deferred.
• The trust, maintenance, and availability tradeoffs are documented.
• If adopted, the intended bootstrap-facing URLs are identified.
• If not adopted, the reasons are recorded so the idea does not need to be re-evaluated from scratch later.

Non-goals

• Building a large general-purpose URL platform for unrelated use cases.
• Turning this issue into a broad homelab architecture project.

[kergoth]

I've done preliminary research on this. The best bet is likely to incorporate this into a broader effort to start a personal site, then use the web server or hosting service's http redirect functionality for a specific set of individual short urls, rather than a broader shortener service. Supplement with a second shorter alias domain.