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Dynamic Configurations

Updated Feb 05, 2023 ·

Overview​

Dynamic configuration lets you define how Traefik connects to and manages your services. You do this by adding *labels- to containers or services.

  • Labels are added directly to containers
  • Labels define routers, services, and middlewares
  • Changes are applied instantly, no restart needed

With dynamic config, you control routing rules and service behavior without editing files or restarting Traefik.

How Dynamic Config Works​

Dynamic config is loaded from the provider (like Docker) at runtime.

  • Labels tell Traefik what to do with a service
  • You can define hostnames, paths, ports, and more
  • Labels apply to routers, middlewares, and services

For example, to route traffic based on a path:

labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.container1.rule=Path(`/first`)"
  - "traefik.http.routers.container2.rule=Path(`/second`)"
  - "traefik.http.routers.container3.rule=Path(`/third`)"

Each container will only respond to its specific path. You can create as many routers as needed using labels.

Enabling Services with Labels​

You can also expose a service and set which port it should use:

labels:
  - "traefik.enable=true"
  - "traefik.http.services.myservice.loadbalancer.server.port=5000"

This tells Traefik to route traffic to port 5000 inside the container. You can match the label names to your own container names.

Adding Middleware with Labels​

Middlewares are reusable features like redirect, headers, or authentication. You attach them using labels too (covered more later).

labels:
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.myredirect.redirectscheme.scheme=https"
  - "traefik.http.routers.myrouter.middlewares=myredirect"

This example redirects HTTP to HTTPS using middleware attached to a router.