Do you want to know how to compile your Business Central app manually as VS Code does? Then you will get started with this blog post.

It all starts with the ALLanguage.vsix file.
On the installation DVD it can be found at the path:
ModernDev\program files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\130\AL Development Environment

If you use docker it can be found at C:\Run\*.vsix

The VSIX file contains the AL language and the compiler.
This file is basically a ZIP folder. Rename it to .zip and extract it to C:\Build\vsix

You can compile your app by using the command prompt or by using powershell.
Lets say that the app is located at: C:\GIT\MyProject\App”
Then we can run the following code in the command prompt to compile our app:
cd C:\build\vsix\extension\bin
alc.exe /project:"C:\GIT\MyProject\App" /packagecachepath:"C:\GIT\MyProject\App\.alpackages" /out:"C:\GIT\MyProject\App\MyApp.app"

If you would like to use powershell it would look like this:

$alcPath = 'C:\build\vsix\extension\bin'
$appProjectFolder = 'C:\GIT\MyProject\App'
$appSymbolsFolder = 'C:\GIT\MyProject\App\.alpackages'
$appOutputFile = 'C:\GIT\MyProject\App\MyApp.app'
Set-Location -Path $alcPath
& .\alc.exe /project:$appProjectFolder /packagecachepath:$appSymbolsFolder /out:$appOutputFile

If you want to do this with powershell and docker there is already an existing cmdlet that does this which I got the inspiration from.
The cmdlet is Compile-AppInNavContainer.ps1 and is a part of the navcontainerhelper.