Hosting and format negotiation

Decision

Use logical resource URLs and let nginx or Apache select prepared image and compression variants from request headers. Generate the hosting configuration during the build.

Context

nuckty produces a static artifact for nginx or Apache hosting, including hosting accessed through FTP. Format negotiation must work without a required application server or CDN.

Alternatives

picture and source. HTML can select image formats explicitly. This is useful when an author needs markup-level control, but repeats format-selection rules for each image.

A CDN. A CDN can negotiate and transform resources. It can be used with a nuckty site, but is an additional service rather than a requirement of the build contract.

Compression on each request. This avoids storing variants but repeats work that can be performed once for a static artifact.

Raster images use a logical URL such as /_i<hash>. The build copies the original and any prepared variants; it does not encode AVIF or WebP. The server selects an available format using Accept and falls back to the original.

Compression uses Accept-Encoding to select Brotli, Gzip, or the original. The generated rules centralize this strategy rather than placing it in every page's markup.

Consequences

Apache must have the required modules and permit the generated .htaccess directives. The price or category of a hosting service does not establish that compatibility. nginx must be configured to use the generated rules.

.htaccess belongs to outDir; nginx.conf belongs to .build. The preview extension generates its own runtime configuration and does not automatically reproduce consumer hooks or Apache behavior in production.

A new format may require changes to image collection, conversion, and hosting generation. Logical URLs keep page markup stable while the serving contract changes.