Managing Pods

Pod Lifecycle

Pods have the following statuses:

Status	Description
`running`	Pod is active and accessible
`stopped`	Pod is shut down but data is preserved
`creating`	Pod is being provisioned
`error`	Something went wrong during creation
`suspended`	Pod is suspended due to billing issues

Start / Stop / Restart

Dashboard
CLI
API

On the pod detail page, use the action buttons in the header to Start, Stop, or Restart your pod.

instapods pods stop my-app
instapods pods start my-app
instapods pods restart my-app

# Wait until the operation completes
instapods pods start my-app -w
instapods pods stop my-app -w --timeout 30
instapods pods restart my-app -w

curl -X POST https://app.instapods.com/api/pods/my-app/start \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

curl -X POST https://app.instapods.com/api/pods/my-app/stop \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

curl -X POST https://app.instapods.com/api/pods/my-app/restart \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Stopping a pod preserves all files but terminates running processes. Any in-memory data not written to disk will be lost.

Resize

Change the CPU, memory, or disk allocation of a running pod.

instapods pods resize my-app --plan build

The --plan flag is required. Resources (CPU, memory, disk) are automatically set based on the target plan.

curl -X POST https://app.instapods.com/api/pods/my-app/resize \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"plan_slug": "build"}'

Delete

Deleting a pod permanently removes the container and all its data.

Dashboard
CLI
API

Go to the pod detail page, click the delete button, and confirm.

# With confirmation prompt
instapods pods delete my-app

# Skip confirmation
instapods pods delete my-app -f

# Wait until deletion completes
instapods pods delete my-app -f -w

curl -X DELETE https://app.instapods.com/api/pods/my-app \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Deletion is irreversible. All files, databases, and configurations inside the pod will be permanently destroyed. Deleted pod names are reserved for 7 days before they can be reused.

List Pods

instapods pods list

Output shows a table with name, preset, plan, CPU, memory, disk, status, and domain.

curl https://app.instapods.com/api/pods \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Get Pod Details

instapods pods get my-app

curl https://app.instapods.com/api/pods/my-app \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"

Reload Application

Restart the application service inside the pod without restarting the container itself. Useful after deploying new code.

instapods pods reload my-app

This restarts different services depending on the preset:

Static: Reloads nginx
PHP: Restarts nginx and PHP-FPM
Node.js: Restarts the app systemd service
Python: Restarts the app systemd service

Reload also auto-detects and installs dependencies: if a package.json (Node.js) or requirements.txt (Python) is present, npm install or pip install runs before restarting the service.

Getting Started

Dashboard

Presets

Services

SSH & Files

Guides

Partners

Support

Pod Lifecycle

Start / Stop / Restart

Resize

Delete

List Pods

Get Pod Details

Reload Application

​Pod Lifecycle

​Start / Stop / Restart

​Resize

​Delete

​List Pods

​Get Pod Details

​Reload Application

Pod Lifecycle

Start / Stop / Restart

Resize

Delete

List Pods

Get Pod Details

Reload Application