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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.

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Apps vs skills

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.

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Document abstraction App

Used for lease abstraction, bid package review, and other field-by-field document extraction workflows. User experience:
  1. Attach or point Hugo at source PDFs
  2. Confirm files and start the abstraction job
  3. Review extracted fields with citations in the App panel
  4. Accept corrections and save or write back to your system of record
See Lease abstraction guide.

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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

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Punch walk contract

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.

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On Watch automations

On Watch runs proactive checks on a schedule — daily briefs, inbox scans, milestone monitors, site-survey queue reviews. Typical automation pattern:
  1. User describes what to check and how often
  2. Hugo drafts title, data source, evaluator prompt, and cadence
  3. User confirms in the Automations panel
  4. Hugo runs checks on schedule and surfaces results
Example requests:

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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