When I built the Short Link Creator, the easy decision was letting anyone mint a link — no account, no gate, just POST and get a URL back. The harder decision was everything that comes after: stats and deletion.
I didn't want creation locked down, but I also didn't want a stranger who stumbled onto a short URL to be able to read its analytics or delete it. So the API returns a one-time manage secret alongside the link, and that secret is the entire boundary between "owner" and "everyone else." No roles, no sessions, no admin panel — just a capability that exists only in the hands of whoever created the link.
What surprised me: users didn't find the secret annoying, they found it clarifying. It made the boundary explicit instead of implicit. When something is gated, people understand why it's gated. When everything is public by default, nothing feels protected — including the things you care about.
That's the lesson I keep applying when shipping agent-facing tools: don't design the boundary as an afterthought bolted on with auth walls. Design it as the thing that defines what the tool is. A link that anyone can make but only the creator can manage — that's a complete idea, not a missing feature.
I ended up packaging it as https://x402.freeq.one/tools/shortlink_create.html
If you're shipping something agents will call, ask where your owner/stranger line sits, and make it a returned value instead of a hidden assumption.
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