By default, Watchtower will clean up other instances and won't allow multiple instances running on the same Docker host or swarm. It is possible to override this behavior by defining a [scope](https://containrrr.github.io/watchtower/arguments/#filter_by_scope) to each running instance.
Notice that:
- Multiple instances can't run with the same scope;
- An instance without a scope will clean up other running instances, even if they have a defined scope;
!!! note
- Multiple instances can't run with the same scope;
- An instance without a scope will clean up other running instances, even if they have a defined scope;
- Supplying `none` as the scope will treat `com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope=none`, `com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope=` and the lack of a `com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope` label as the scope `none`. This effectly enables you to run both scoped and unscoped watchtower instances on the same machine.
To define an instance monitoring scope, use the `--scope` argument or the `WATCHTOWER_SCOPE` environment variable on startup and set the _com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope_ label with the same value for the containers you want to include in this instance's scope (including the instance itself).
To define an instance monitoring scope, use the `--scope` argument or the `WATCHTOWER_SCOPE` environment variable on startup and set the `com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope` label with the same value for the containers you want to include in this instance's scope (including the instance itself).
For example, in a Docker Compose config file:
@ -12,16 +13,29 @@ For example, in a Docker Compose config file: