Coming from another provider - Kardinal API

If you’ve worked with another routing or optimization tool, the underlying problem is familiar — this maps the vocabulary the field generally uses to what it’s actually called in the Kardinal API.

Generic vehicle-routing term	Kardinal equivalent
Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP)	A `Plan` — `resources`, `orders`, and any plan-level constraints or objectives. See Data model.
Route / trip	A `tour` in the solution (`solution.tours[]`). See Glossary.
Depot	Not a first-class object — a resource’s `departure`/`arrival` position. See Depot vs. position.
Multi-depot VRP	Multiple resources with different `departure`/`arrival` positions inside the same `Plan` — not one `Plan` per depot. See Depot vs. position.
Hard time windows	`authorizedTimeWindows` — outside of it, the stop can’t be planned at all. See Hard vs soft constraints.
Soft time windows / lateness penalty	`preferredTimeWindows`, tracked by the `minimizeDelay` objective. See Hard vs soft constraints.
Capacitated VRP (CVRP)	`capacities` — free-form named dimensions declared on both resources and stops. See Capacities.
Vehicle Routing Problem with Pickup and Delivery (VRPPD)	Pickup- and delivery-kind stops inside the same `Order`, in array order. See Order, stop.
Skill-based / heterogeneous fleet routing	`requiredSkills` (hard match) or `preferredStopTags` with `maximizePreferredStops` (soft preference). See Modeling advanced constraints.
Multi-trip VRP (vehicle reloads mid-shift)	The depot-return pattern in Multi-trip tours — no dedicated field, built from `capacities` and stop `kind`.
Precedence constraints	`maximizePrecedences`, an objective built from tagged “this before that” stop pairs. See How the optimization engine works.
Cost / objective function	An ordered `objectives` list, optimized in strict lexicographic priority — not a single weighted score. See How the optimization engine works.
Dynamic / live re-optimization	Submitting the same plan `id` again (`PUT /plans/{planId}`) — the engine updates the existing solution instead of solving from scratch. See Real-time re-optimization.

See also

Glossary — the full list of Kardinal-specific terms.
Data model — field-by-field reference for Resource, Order, and Stop.
How the optimization engine works — objectives and the optimization loop.