There may be "hobby" exemptions for a boiler below certain
minimum size and/or pressure; this is very locale-dependent.
Hot water for residential uses does not need to be boiling,
so you might escape the regulations altogether if you are
able to show that temperatures or pressures are below
this point.
A neighbor of mine used to heat his above-ground pool
using a copper coil in an oil drum and burning scrap wood.
Garden hose for the rest of the run. Not very high temp
at all, but adequate to the task. Consider the tradeoff
between heat exchanger area, heated water flow demand
and working temperatures.
Water-tube boilers and fire-tube boilers I believe may
have different safety regimes / regulations / inspection
requirements due to their differing failure modes. But
the best key to regulatory escape, I think, is to avoid
boiling altogether.