A dry run is a small courtesy to the future. It lets a tool show what it would touch before the change becomes real: the files, the recipients, the assumptions that were quietly filled in.
That preview is not a substitute for judgment. It is a place for judgment to arrive early, while the cost of changing course is still low. A useful dry run should be plain enough to scan and specific enough to challenge.
Even a tiny version helps: one line that says what will happen, where it will happen, and what has not happened yet. The goal is not ceremony. It is leaving a little room to notice the almost-right plan.