Determine the feed format your dealer partner is using — common formats include standard dealer data exchange files (often CSV or XML exports from DMS systems) or direct integration via inventory management platform APIs such as vAuto's dealer-facing tools
For vAuto specifically, access is provided to dealers and their approved technology partners through Cox Automotive's partner program; request access via the Cox Automotive developer portal and agree to partner terms
Once approved, receive credentials and feed specifications; inventory feeds are commonly delivered via SFTP, HTTP polling endpoints, or webhooks depending on the integration agreement
Parse the feed data: typical fields include VIN, year, make, model, trim, mileage, asking price, stock number, condition (new/used), dealer ID, and a set of photos (usually URLs)
Normalize and validate incoming records against the VIN using a decode API (e.g., NHTSA vPIC) to fill gaps and catch data entry errors before storing
Known gotchas
Dealer inventory data is highly time-sensitive; a vehicle sold this morning may still appear in a feed delivered tonight — implement a staleness indicator and flag records not updated within your agreed feed cadence
VINs in dealer feeds are sometimes entered incorrectly (transposed characters, placeholder VINs for incoming units); validate check digits and reject or quarantine records that fail VIN validation
Feed formats are not standardized across all DMS and inventory platforms — even within vAuto's ecosystem, field names and formats can differ by dealer configuration; build a flexible mapping layer rather than hardcoding field names
Give your agent this knowledge — and 200+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp