documentclass{article}

usepackage{tikz}
usepackage{pgfplots}
usepgfplotslibrary{external}
tikzexternalize[mode=list and make]

begin{document}

input{tikz/figure.tikz}

end{document}

begin{figure}
begin{tikzpicture}
begin{axis}
addplot {x^2};
end{axis}
end{tikzpicture}
caption{Our first external graphics example}
end{figure}

ALL_FIGURE_NAMES=$(shell cat mwe.figlist)
ALL_FIGURES=$(ALL_FIGURE_NAMES:%=%.pdf)

allimages: $(ALL_FIGURES)
    @echo All images exist now. Use make -B to re-generate them.

FORCEREMAKE:

include $(ALL_FIGURE_NAMES:%=%.dep)

%.dep:
    mkdir -p "$(dir $@)"
    touch "$@" # will be filled later.

mwe-figure0.pdf:
    pdflatex -shell-escape -halt-on-error -interaction=batchmode -jobname "mwe-figure0" "deftikzexternalrealjob{mwe}input{mwe}"

mwe-figure0.pdf: mwe-figure0.md5

documentclass{article}

usepackage{tikz}
usepackage{pgfplots}
usepgfplotslibrary{external}
tikzexternalize[mode=list and make]

tikzset{%
    external/system call={cd .. && pdflatex tikzexternalcheckshellescape --halt-on-error --interaction=batchmode --output-directory=./build --jobname "image" "texsource"},
    /pgf/images/include external/.code={%
        includegraphics{build/#1}%
    },
}
begin{document}

input{tikz/figure.tikz}

end{document}

ALL_FIGURE_NAMES=$(shell cat mwe.figlist)
ALL_FIGURES=$(ALL_FIGURE_NAMES:%=%.pdf)

allimages: $(ALL_FIGURES)
        @echo All images exist now. Use make -B to re-generate them.

FORCEREMAKE:

include $(ALL_FIGURE_NAMES:%=%.dep)

%.dep:
        mkdir -p "$(dir $@)"
        touch "$@" # will be filled later.

mwe-figure0.pdf:
        cd .. && pdflatex -shell-escape --halt-on-error --interaction=batchmode --output-directory=./build --jobname "mwe-figure0" "deftikzexternalrealjob{mwe}input{mwe}"

mwe-figure0.pdf: mwe-figure0.md5