# Environments

Environments contain all the data, drivers, and other software for your instance.

Your environment can be stopped and started at will, making it easy to save your progress without having to pay for an instance 24/7.

### Starting an environment

First, pick an environment from our [public list of environments](https://backprop.co/environments). 

For example, you can choose the [Backprop Stack](https://backprop.co/environments/backprop-stack) for an environment that has the most popular AI tools such as Jupyter, pytorch and transformers installed.

Click on **Run instance** at the top right of the page

<figure><img src="/files/8qMCulH3BLXb4J4ugSWo" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

This will give you some configuration options, including the **Instance type**, **Environment variables** and **SSH key**.

<figure><img src="/files/gBsZYGOE17Q2GbC1bB81" alt="" width="425"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Once you click deploy, we make a copy of the base environment such that it becomes uniquely yours.

You can modify everything, down to the driver and kernel versions. No worries if you break it, you can just destroy it and start over.

### Stopping/destroying

If you want to temporarily stop your environment and resume at a later time it's easy to do so.

Simply click on the instance type at the top right and press **Stop**.

<figure><img src="/files/AyCiojc2C1Z6trpL9xOx" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

This will give the option to either temporarily stop it or permanently destroy the environment, deleting all data. If you wish to destroy your environment permanently, tick the box.

<figure><img src="/files/bxSPnjycm8SGYuFDWIHO" alt="" width="414"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Changing the instance type

If you suddenly need more or less compute power, it's possible to change the instance type.

This lets you keep the entire environment state and simply run it on different hardware.

To do this, click on the instance type at the top right and press **Change instance**.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.backprop.co/backprop-docs/usage/environments.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.