Punch List Drafter
Punch List Drafter is the engine that turns a closeout walk into structured punch items. From the walk's voice recording and photos it drafts each item with a title, location, trade, priority, target close date, photo evidence and a quote from the walk, and checks for duplicates against the open list before anything is logged.
What does the Punch List Drafter do?
Punch List Drafter takes the raw output of a closeout walk — a voice recording and the photos taken along the way — and produces structured punch items ready to log. Each extracted item gets a title, location, trade assignment, priority, target close date, the photo(s) attached as evidence, and a quote from the walk where it was discussed.
The engine runs trigram-similarity dedupe against existing open items on the project before logging anything new. Walking the same Level 3 East twice in three days no longer creates duplicate punch items — the engine recognizes "loose carpet seam at Room 305" matches the existing item and merges instead of duplicating.
When should I use the Punch List Drafter?
Use Punch List Drafter for the pre-substantial-completion walk, to turn an owner's or architect's call-outs into structured items without retyping, and after rework to capture the remaining items and merge them with the existing list.
- Pre-substantial-completion walk — turn the voice + photos into the formal punch list in one pass.
- Owner walk-through — record the owner's call-outs and turn them into structured items without retyping.
- Architect punch walk — same use case, with the AOR speaking instead.
- Re-walk after rework — capture remaining items and let dedupe merge with the existing list.
Approved draft items push straight into the Punch List Tracker for assignment, aging, and closeout. The dedupe report is preserved as part of the audit trail.
What do I upload to the Punch List Drafter?
Two inputs: the voice recording from the walk (browser capture or upload) and the photos taken on the walk (uploaded with location tags). The engine cross-references the voice timeline with the photo timestamps to attach the right photos to each item.
Optional: a floor plan with room numbers (sharpens location attribution), the existing open punch list (forces dedupe explicitly), and the walking-party attendee list (improves attribution if the engine cites who called out an item).
How do I run the Punch List Drafter?
To run Punch List Drafter, open it, upload the walk audio and the photos, run the draft, review the drafted items and the dedupe report, edit them, and file the punch items.
Open the engine
Sidebar → Engines → Punch List Drafter.
Upload the walk audio
Browser-recorded or uploaded file. MP3 / M4A / WAV preferred.
Upload the photos
Drop the photos taken during the walk into project_media if not already there. Location tags + timestamps help the engine align them with the audio timeline.
Run draft
20–40 seconds.
Review the drafted items
Each row shows title, location, trade, priority, target close date, photo evidence, and the quote from the walk.
Check the dedupe report
Engine flags any drafted items that match existing open items. Approve merge or keep as new.
Edit before logging
Tighten titles, override location if the engine guessed wrong, change priority. Engine drafts conservatively — PM polish helps.
File punch items
Click File Punch Items to push drafted items into the Punch List Tracker.
How do I read the Punch List Drafter results?
The result is a list of drafted items with a trade assignment, photo evidence and a quote from the walk for each, plus a dedupe report and a walk summary.
One row per identified deficiency. Title, location, trade, priority, target close, photo evidence, walk quote.
Engine infers the responsible trade from the item description (e.g., "loose carpet seam" → flooring sub). Override if needed.
Each item links to the photo(s) taken on the walk that depict it. Click to preview.
The verbatim line from the audio where the item was called out. Anchored to the audio moment for verification.
Drafted items that match existing open items, surfaced for explicit merge approval. Reduces duplicate entries.
One-paragraph overview of the walk: who was present, areas covered, total items found, severity breakdown.
Every control, explained
Run draftConsumes one run. 20–40 seconds.
Edit itemIn-place edit on title, location, trade, priority, or target close date before filing.
Approve mergeConfirms a dedupe match — drafted item folds into the existing open item instead of creating a duplicate.
Keep as newOverrides the dedupe match if the engine guessed wrong and the new item is actually distinct.
Delete drafted itemRemoves a false positive before filing.
File Punch ItemsPushes approved drafted items to the Punch List Tracker with audit trail.
Export PDFPre-filing walk-report PDF with all drafted items and photo thumbnails. Useful when the walking party wants a copy before formal filing.
Sources
- Summary: A201-2017, General Conditions of the Contract for ConstructionAIA Contract DocumentsThe AIA overview of the general conditions that set out the rights and duties of owner, contractor and architect.
- FAR 52.246-12: Inspection of ConstructionAcquisition.gov, Federal Acquisition RegulationThe federal clause on inspecting construction work, including the contractor’s inspection system.