Droplet Reference
Validated on 4 Jul 2021 • Last edited on 11 Dec 2025
DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines (VMs) that run on top of virtualized hardware. Each Droplet you create is a new server you can use, either standalone or as part of a larger, cloud-based infrastructure.
The DigitalOcean API
The DigitalOcean API lets you manage resources programmatically with standard HTTP requests. All actions available in the control panel are also available through the API.
You can use the API to create, destroy, and retrieve information about your Droplets. You can also use the API to enable backups, change kernels, or reboot your Droplets.
The DigitalOcean Command Line Client, doctl
doctl is the command-line interface for the DigitalOcean API. It supports most of the same actions available in the API and DigitalOcean Control Panel.
doctl supports managing Droplets from the command line. See the doctl documentation or use doctl compute --help for more information.
The DigitalOcean MCP Server
The DigitalOcean MCP server lets you use natural language prompts to interact with Droplets to create, manage, resize, and inspect virtual machines, as well as perform actions like rebooting, shutting down, restoring from backups, and managing snapshots and images. All operations use argument-based input, and no resource URIs are used. Pagination is supported for list endpoints, and tag-based tools allow bulk actions on multiple Droplets where applicable.