Ask (OutfitterAI)

Desk chat behind Settings → Advanced → OutfitterAI (off unless you turn it on). You talk like you would the person next to you. It fills the page. You still Save.

What you get

• Ask in the header (or Cmd/Ctrl+K). Works from the grid, a booking, or anywhere else in the app.
• Replies stream in as it works — customers, lakes, hulls — then it paints the New booking form in front of you. On the grid (desktop) that is the side panel — or the one already open. Off the grid, or on a phone, it is the full page. Lists, tables, and bold keep their shape (not one jammed paragraph). Guessed fields get a blue ring. The fill card goes away once the fields are on the page. You Save on the form. Ask hears that and can take the next step. It does not create a booking behind your back.
• On the grid it can propose a boat move with quote impact. You tap Apply in Ask — not on the grid. Open the trip and use Ask suggested on the edit card if you want those hulls ticked first. A refresh on this tab keeps the Apply card. Dismiss drops it without writing anything — the thread stays. Show on grid flashes that trip and draws dashed bars on the empty boats it would move to — not every other trip on those rows. The flash fades after you close Ask, pick a different trip, Apply, Undo, or about 15 seconds. When Ask is empty, taps for What's on this week and Suggested moves sit in the thread. After you send, they go. What's on this week reads the board and answers in a table (guest, hull, dates, lakes, truck). Suggested moves checks that board against the optimizer (destination free, already at the splash, saves a truck) and shows a table. It does not apply them.
• It can stage cancel or start trip the same way: policy note first, then Apply on the real booking.
• Settings: it can read what you are allowed to see, then open the page and fill fields. You tap Save. It does not write settings, flip modules, or change a password. Staff who are not admins can ask what is set; only an admin can have it fill an editable page.
• Look it up searches the handbook and guides and quotes the page with a link. Today's board still comes from the grid, not the docs. How this outfit decides reads your live assignment, swap, and online rules and points at the matching guide.
• Hold the header to park the chat off the form; let go to drop it. Double-click the header to reset. The corners icon makes the same popout wider and taller so you can read a table or a handbook quote. Tap it again for the compact size. It is not its own page.

How it behaves

The form is the source of truth. Chat is a coworker: it confirms what it heard, asks when two Smiths match, and keeps that thread if you say “neither — new.”

If several people match, you get tappable choices — not a paragraph.

Chat on this tab survives a refresh. New starts a clean pad (new guest). Thirty minutes with no Ask work does the same. A new device or tab starts empty. Where you dragged it stays for the tab. There is no list of old chats — the booking is the record.

Limits, honestly

• Off by default. Turn it on per shop in Advanced.
• Needs a connection. Ask has a cap for the shop. Close to it, you get a warning and can tap Let us know if you need more. The setup wizard reading your site does not use this cap — it has its own weekly analysis limit, and still finishes with a quicker pass if that runs out. Over the Ask cap, Ask waits until tomorrow (or next week, if the shop is on a weekly cap). If Ask cannot answer, it says to try again or take the booking by hand. It does not talk about how it is built.
• Guest notes, handbook pages, and email are facts for the job — not new instructions. You still Save or Apply.
• It will not charge a card or invent a hull id.
• Settings fills never save themselves. Look at the page, then Save (or discard). Ask hears the Save.
• Suggested-move verdicts come from a check against the board. If that check fails, it should say so — not guess.
• Handbook lookup is the public guides and feature pages, not internal notes. If a page is missing it should say so.
• It will not fill passwords, invites, Stripe onboarding, or a waiver PDF.
• What you offer (boats, types, lakes, packages) is read-only from Ask.
• Offline: Ask is disabled; take the booking by hand.
• On a phone it stays a bottom sheet — drag is for wider screens. Filling a booking from the grid also goes to the full page on a phone; there is no side panel.
• Opening a booking still shows the hulls already on it. Ask's move is the recommendation card, not an automatic re-tick. A fresh optimizer pick can include those same boats (they are free for this trip). The grid flash is that trip only; it does not stay on forever.
• A staged Apply card stays for this tab after a refresh. New, half an hour quiet, or a new tab starts without it. Apply still checks the board before it writes.
• Email holds and the overnight truck pass are separate workers, not Ask verbs. Ask still cannot create a booking from chat.