Apps & automations

Surfaice Apps (punch walk, document abstraction) and On Watch automations — structured workflows beyond chat skills.

Note

New here? Read What is Surfaice? and Skills first so the Apps vs skills distinction is clear.

Some high-stakes workflows use Apps and automations in addition to skills. Skills tell Hugo how to start and orchestrate work; Apps provide guided UIs for human validation.

A punch walk is a field walkthrough that logs incomplete construction items (the “punch list”) before a store opens. The punch-walk App helps capture those items section by section on a phone or tablet.

Apps vs skills

	Skill	App
Purpose	Repeatable playbook Hugo follows	Structured UI with validation states
Output	Tables, drafts, exports, chat answers	Panel-based review, checklists, writeback
Examples	`permits`, `bid-tracking`	`document-abstraction`, `punch_walk`
When to use	Query, summarize, draft	Field-by-field review before save

Note

Behavioral routing rules live in App guidance, not skill bodies. If a workflow has a dedicated App, Hugo should route you into that App instead of improvising the full workflow in chat.

Document abstraction App

Used for lease abstraction, bid package review, and other field-by-field document extraction workflows.

Entry skill	Flow
`lease-abstraction`	User selects PDFs → Hugo starts `document-abstraction` job → validation UI for review → optional Lucernex writeback
`bid-package-review`	Bid docs → abstraction job → subcontractor scope checklist + estimator scope sheet export
`storage-agreement-abstract`	Storage/license agreements through the same App pattern

User experience:

Attach or point Hugo at source PDFs
Confirm files and start the abstraction job
Review extracted fields with citations in the App panel
Accept corrections and save or write back to your system of record

See Lease abstraction guide.

Punch walk App

Punch walk is an App for field closeout — not a catalog skill file. Retail construction teams use it to:

Start a structured punch walk for a store or project
Capture checklist and ad-hoc deficiency items
Track vendor assignment and completion status
Generate punch reports for opening readiness

Punch walk contract


Triggers	"Start punch walk for store 1842", open punch walk App from workspace
Required inputs	Store number; walk mode (free vs inspect-in-order); verified contacts on start card
Expected output	Section-by-section checklist, deficiency log, exportable punch report
Review checklist	Correct section/trade for each item; compliance answers via checklist widgets; contacts match system of record

Field tips:

On iPad, use checklist widgets for compliance — not long typed answers
If you chose inspect in order, Hugo should advance sections without asking every time
Large sites may take several minutes per step — normal for heavy field workflows

Ask Hugo to start a punch walk for a store, or open the punch walk App from your workspace if enabled.

Related skills: punch-list-status, opening, closeout.

On Watch automations

On Watch runs proactive checks on a schedule — daily briefs, inbox scans, milestone monitors, site-survey queue reviews.

Skill	What it does
`Automation Creator`	Guided flow to create/update automations from natural language — "pull my daily brief every weekday at 7 AM"
`site-survey`	Notes that recurring survey queue management is a good On Watch candidate

Typical automation pattern:

User describes what to check and how often
Hugo drafts title, data source, evaluator prompt, and cadence
User confirms in the Automations panel
Hugo runs checks on schedule and surfaces results

Example requests:

Create an automation to run key-dates-digest every Monday morning.

Schedule portfolio-focus every weekday at 7 AM.

On Watch: alert when permits-delayed stores block construction starts.

Franchise development automations

Franchise templates often combine skills with scheduled monitors:

critical-dates-portfolio — lease portfolio date scan
pipeline-status — development pipeline rollup
closeout-check — TI allowance and closeout audit

Skills library
Lease & portfolio skills
Reporting skills
Workspace admin — Automation Creator setup