Intracellular pathogens colonize specific subcellular niches, determined by their need for host-derived nutrients and their ability to overcome compartment-specific immune responses. Most intracellular bacteria reside in phagosomes, with only a few species managing to colonize the cytosol. This is somewhat counterintuitive, given the abundance of nutrients freely available in the cytosol. Therefore, potent cytosolic defense mechanisms must exist. I will discuss how cells protect their cytosol against bacterial invasion through autophagy, focusing on novel triggers for antibacterial autophagy that we have discovered: the detection of sphingomyelin on damaged phagosomes by TECPR1, and the ubiquitylation of LPS on Gram-negative bacteria by RNF213. I will also explore how cytosol-adapted bacteria counteract antibacterial autophagy