Techniques are disclosed for managing data within a reconfigurable computing environment. In a multiple processing element environment, such as a mesh network or other suitable topology, there is an inherent need to pass data between processing elements. Subtasks are divided among multiple processing elements. The output resulting from the subtasks is then merged by a downstream processing element. In such cases, a join operation can be used to combine data from multiple upstream processing elements. A control agent executes on each processing element. A memory buffer is disposed between upstream processing elements and the downstream processing element. The downstream processing element is configured to automatically perform an operation based on the availability of valid data from the upstream processing elements.