Glossary
Dry run
A dry run is an Upsight campaign mode that runs every step of the bidder, from matching and scoring to the drafted letter, screening answers and approval, and files nothing on Upwork, so a new campaign or a newly connected login can be checked without spending a Connect.
Updated
Also written: Test mode.
Submitting a proposal on Upwork is irreversible in the ways that matter: the base Connects are charged at submission, a boost bid enters the auction, and most of the proposal can be edited only for six hours or until the client views it. A campaign that is wrong about its keywords, its budget floor or its voice therefore costs money on its first morning.
A dry run removes the last step. The campaign sweeps the feed on its schedule, scores each job against the agency's criteria and win history, chooses the member, writes the letter from the knowledge base, answers the screening questions, and queues the result for review exactly as it would in approval mode; the only difference is that nothing is sent, however the draft is approved. The drafts are read, the score bands are inspected, the match rate against the keyword's real jobs is seen, and the campaign is switched on once the output is the output you would send.
The same mode is used for a connected login's first send after a change on Upwork's side. Upwork alters its proposal form without notice; a dry run exercises the whole path up to the submit button and reports what it saw, so a renamed field is found by a test and not by a lost proposal.
How Upsight uses it. Test mode is a campaign setting, visible in the campaign list and the MCP server, and the Test Lab runs a single job through the writer on demand; both are free, since Upsight meters proposals submitted and a draft that files nothing is not one.
Source
Upsight's term; the Upwork page it refers to: How to submit a proposal on Upwork, read on .
Where Upsight measures it: the bidder.