Definition
Plain language
A diagram of items connected by one-way arrows that never loop back on themselves.
As stated in the literature
Directed Acyclic Graph — a graph with directed edges and no cycles, used to represent dependency structure such as Bayesian networks, evidence graphs, and agent task flows.
Also called: directed acyclic graph
Why it matters: Its no-loops structure makes dependencies clear and lets systems process tasks in a valid order without getting stuck in circular references.
For example, a recipe's steps form one of these when chopping must come before cooking and you never circle back to an earlier step.
Heard on the show
“They call it the evidence DAG — directed acyclic graph — but the picture I want listeners to hold is a detective's corkboard.”Episode 051 — Why Parallel Sampling Plateaus, And What Evidence Graphs Do Instead