### Documentation

**Hugo** is the AI agent inside Surfaice. This page describes its limits so your team can set realistic expectations before relying on outputs in systems of record.

Surfaice is built for high-stakes retail real estate work. That means being clear about what Hugo **can** do in your workspace today, and what still requires a human or your system of record.

## Memory and context

| What Hugo remembers | What it does not guarantee |

| --- | --- |

| The current chat thread and workspace instructions | Unlimited perfect recall across every past conversation |

| Artifacts you deliberately save in the workspace | A full mirror of Lucernex, SharePoint, or your mailbox |

| Connected-system data at query time (under your permissions) | Data from systems you have not connected or are not allowed to use |

Long threads may be summarized so Hugo can keep working. If a detail mattered three weeks ago and was never saved to a workspace artifact, ask Hugo to look it up again in the source system.

## Skills vs freeform chat

| Use a **skill** when… | Use **freeform chat** when… |

| --- | --- |

| You need a repeatable workflow (abstraction, CAM triage, key dates) | You are exploring or asking a one-off question |

| Inputs are structured (store #, PDF, date range) | You need a quick summary across systems |

| Output should match a known template or App | You are drafting email or narrative text |

Skills route through tested procedures. Freeform chat is more flexible but easier to mis-scope, always specify store number, landlord, project, or folder when you can.

## Portfolio and corpus questions

- **"All leases" or "every store"** requests can take a long time and may return partial coverage when the corpus is large

- Hugo should report **how many** stores or files it inspected. If you do not see a count, ask: _"How many leases did you include, and which folders?"_

- Maps, dashboards, and **Preview** artifacts depend on the skill finishing successfully. If Preview is empty, retry with a smaller scope, see [Working with Hugo](/docs/guides/working-with-hugo/ai)

## Scanned documents and OCR

Many retail tenants work from scanned lease PDFs. Hugo can transcribe and abstract scans, but quality varies:

- Low-resolution scans, handwritten notes, or stamp overlays may produce missing or wrong fields

- OCR transcription and full lease abstraction are different workflows, say which you need

- Always compare abstracted values to the signed PDF before updating Lucernex

## Punch walk and field workflows

Construction punch walks (where enabled) have product-specific behavior:

- **Compliance checklists** work best as on-screen forms, not three questions in one paragraph

- If you chose **inspect sections in order**, Hugo should advance automatically; if it keeps asking permission to open the next section, say _"continue in order"_ or restart with that mode selected

- **Verify the section** before confirming a deficiency, voice or freeform descriptions can land in the wrong trade bucket (for example GC vs installer)

- **Contact tables** on the start card should match your system of record (for example Sitefolio, a construction project tracker). If they disagree, treat Hugo's table as a draft and correct before the walk

## Response time

Simple chat answers are usually fast. Heavy workflows, full-folder inventory, multi-store extraction, voice punch walk, or large portfolio maps, can take **30 seconds to several minutes**. That is expected when Hugo is reading many files or running structured skills.

For complex jobs, see [Working with Hugo](/docs/guides/working-with-hugo/ai) or contact [support](/docs/support/ai).