In one (internal) CLI I maintain, I actually put the `if not dry_run:` inside the code which calls the REST API, because I have a setting to log HTTP calls as CURL commands, and that way in dry-run mode I can get the HTTP calls it would have made without it actually making them.

And this works well if your CLI command is simply performing a single operation, e.g. call this REST API

But the moment it starts to do anything more complex: e.g. call API1, and then send the results of API1 to API2 – it becomes a lot more difficult

Of course, you can simulate what API1 is likely to have returned; but suddenly you have something a lot more complex and error-prone than just `if not dry_run:`

Having 1 place (or just generally limiting them) that does the things keeps the dry_run check from polluting the entire codebase. I maintain a lot of CLI tooling that's run by headless VMs in automation pipelines and we do this with basically every single tool.

What's your obsession with REST AND HTTP for console tools?!

Rest bloat is insane. Kidss nowadays wants EVERYTHING to run over IP/TCP/https. Why?!

Learn to write local tools first.