What do you think of this Python project? It’s called aurman, and it’s used by Arch Linux users to pull in packages from Arch User Repository (AUR), the unofficial package repo for Arch. It works as a wrapper around pacman, the standard Arch package manager.
I think it already has some tests written for it, (possibly short of a full suite), so you’ll be able to contrast your tests with the existing ones as an exercise, but also provide more within the same framework.
I have to echo what others have said, and tell you exposing your router’s login to the public internet is very risky (if you’re referring to the WiFi router in your home). I would strongly recommend some other solution to whatever broader problem you’re trying to solve with this—why do you need to access your router login from outside your home? Can the logging in (and presumably tinkering) be done at home? Definitely things to think through before proceeding.
You probably know this, but Mint is kind of just Debian with extra stuff (some might call it bloat, but that’s a matter of use case). So a switch to Debian from Mint should be very straightforward, if not seamless. The package manager is the same, and that’s usually the biggest part of switching distros. Debian is also ideal for hosting specifically; many, many production servers run on Debian. It’s also arguably the best-supported distro out there, so whatever question you have had probably already been answered.
TL;DR you should totally try Debian out (especially a headless version). It mostly like won’t be an issue.
Yes—whichever one was hosting that pile of digital trash!