Traefik requires Docker provider configuration for automatic service discovery

Traefik must be configured with Docker as a provider and have access to the Docker socket to automatically discover containers and their routing labels. With exposedByDefault set to false, containers must explicitly enable Traefik routing via labels or they will not be discovered.

Configure Docker provider in traefik.yml with providers.docker section. Set exposedByDefault to false to require explicit opt-in. Mount Docker socket as read-only volume: /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro. Add traefik.enable=true label to each container that should be exposed. Enable watch: true for dynamic configuration updates.