Is there any kind of protocol/method where I can use something like docker containers in order to "host" compilers like gcc and use that with vscode to compile and assemble source code?

No I'm not talking about volumes (it's a bit tedious if I want to use it to manage numerous projects)

You can do what that with multistage builds so you compile in one sdk container and put the outputs in another container copying the complied files from it, You can debug code in containers using a remote debug monitor in your sdk container and connect to it from vs code. Look at the .net core docker integration stuff to see how that works, will be similar for other languages. You can manage it all with docker compose if you have multiple containers

@gruff could you provide some links? I'd be interested in looking into this as well

@segfault0xff https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/... and https://visualgdb.com/tutorials/... should get you going