I know that Gitlab's debian/ubuntu packages use this: https://github.com/chef/omnibus

Perhaps that's the path for a Mastodon package, too

@Gargron Would that mean making a mastodon-ctl like gitlab? So when you run a reconfigure, restart, etc. that the chef cookbook kicks off.

I tend to stay away from omnibus setups in general but have managed a gitlab instance at work for a couple years. It can work well and definitely can make it easier for less experienced users to manage a complex project.