"Data flow programming paradigm" would be one term that describes the architecture for such a system. It is more general but if each node in the graph emits ou

"Data flow programming paradigm" would be one term that describes the architecture for such a system. It is more general but if each node in the graph emits output only if novel input is received then one gets idempotency. A Makefile (ie, for the "make" tool) or any of the similar build systems implement this pattern using file based data exchange (DFP graph edges) and graph nodes implemented as processes.