Dear Mikael,


> 2) Is there a nice way to compile the tex file from
> within vs code? As of
> now, I opened a terminal and compiled from that, but that feels like the
> wrong way of doing it.

For the first question, I don’t know either.
For the second question, I’d like to explain what I did for compiling TeX file in vscode.
Since I use vscode in MacOsX, you may find your way in Linux.

There is a tasks.json file in .vscode folder.
I added the following script in the “tasks":[ ]  and save it.
(You have to modify the  "texmf-osx-64/bin” path in the following script from your machine.

    {
            "label": "ConTeXt LuaMetaTeX",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "export PATH=/Users/graph/ConTeXtLM/tex/texmf-osx-64/bin:$PATH;mtxrun --autogenerate --script context --autopdf --purge '${file}'",
            "args": [],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${fileDirname}"
            },
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            }
     },

When you want to compile a ConTeXt file, find “terminal > Run Build task” in the menu,
then “ConTeXt LuaMetaTex” will pop up.
Or just use the key “command-shift-B” instead using menu item.

I hope that it may help.

Best wishes,

Dalyoung