---
layout: docs
page_title: Task Drivers
description: Task Drivers are used to integrate with the host OS to run tasks in Nomad.
---

# Task Drivers

Task drivers are used by Nomad clients to execute a task and provide resource
isolation. By having extensible task drivers, Nomad has the flexibility to
support a broad set of workloads across all major operating systems.

Starting with Nomad 0.9, task drivers are now pluggable. This gives users the
flexibility to introduce their own drivers without having to recompile Nomad.
You can view the [plugin stanza][plugin] documentation for examples on how to
use the `plugin` stanza in Nomad's client configuration. Note that we have
introduced new syntax when specifying driver options in the client configuration
(see [docker][docker_plugin] for an example). Keep in mind that even though all
built-in drivers are now plugins, Nomad remains a single binary and maintains
backwards compatibility except with the `lxc` driver.

The list of supported task drivers is provided on the left of this page. Each
task driver documents the configuration available in a [job
specification](/docs/job-specification), the environments it can be
used in, and the resource isolation mechanisms available.

For details on authoring a task driver plugin, please refer to the [plugin
authoring guide][plugin_guide].

Task driver resource isolation is intended to provide a degree of separation of
Nomad client CPU / memory / storage between tasks. Resource isolation
effectiveness is dependent upon individual task driver implementations and
underlying client operating systems. Task drivers do include various
security-related controls, but the Nomad client to task interface should not be
considered a security boundary. See the [access control guide][acl_guide] for
more information on how to protect Nomad cluster operations.

[plugin]: /docs/configuration/plugin
[docker_plugin]: /docs/drivers/docker#client-requirements
[plugin_guide]: /docs/internals/plugins
[acl_guide]: https://learn.hashicorp.com/collections/nomad/access-control
