When I was making other changes in vyatta-cfg, I found a utility I didn't realize existed: https://github.com/vyos/vyatta-cfg/blob/current/src/exe_action.c (installed at /opt/vyatta/sbin/exe_action).

Its apparent goal is to execute commit actions for individual nodes. That was probably a terrible idea even in the days of Vyatta when all config scripts were completely self-contained. Now it can be even more dangerous and can mess up the system state big time, if it works (it doesn't seem to work properly, for better or worse).

In any case, it brings no value to either end users or developers and it's best to remove it.