# Providers

## What is a Provider?

A Provider is how Sablier interacts with your instances.

A Provider typically has the following capabilities:
- Start an instance
- Stop an instance
- Get the current status of an instance
- Listen for instance lifecycle events (started, stopped)

## Available Providers

| Provider                     | Name                      | Details                                                          |
|------------------------------|---------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|
| [Docker](docker)             | `docker`                  | Stop and start **containers** on demand                          |
| [Docker Swarm](docker_swarm) | `docker_swarm` or `swarm` | Scale down to zero and up **services** on demand                 |
| [Kubernetes](kubernetes)     | `kubernetes`              | Scale down and up **deployments** and **statefulsets** on demand |
| [Podman](podman)             | `podman`                  | Stop and start **containers** on demand                          |

*Your Provider is not on the list? [Open an issue to request the missing provider here!](https://github.com/sablierapp/sablier/issues/new?assignees=&labels=enhancement%2C+provider&projects=&template=instance-provider-request.md&title=Add+%60%5BPROVIDER%5D%60+provider)*

[See the active issues about providers](https://github.com/sablierapp/sablier/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Aprovider)