what if web servers could serve up a static site where custom headers and/or status code can be prepended just like they are in http? like you could set up a redirect by just having the file be (note no version)

HTTP 301
Location: /some/place/else

or set the charset of a text file with

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Shift_JIS

your text here

rather than using some web-server-specific config format. you would also need a file extension or similar on disk to signal the presence of a “header”, but that can be hidden with rewrite rules.

has anyone done this? i guess it would only make sense if the format was specified in an interoperable way.