diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 4fa306950a3..b1c204704a9 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -92,12 +92,17 @@ idea {
 ext.versionSource = versionSource
 ext.globalVersion = "0.7.0"
 
-// To set fishlibVersion, go to project-local gradle.properties file
-// (or, use the gradle.properties in $USER_HOME/.gradle for a global override)
-// If you have fishlib open in IDE, also set includeFish=true to get the
-// intellij projects wired up across repositories.
-
-Set<Project> modsAreBasic = subprojects.findAll {it.name in ['deephaven-wheel', 'deephaven2-wheel', 'envoy', 'grpc-proxy', 'web-client-ui', 'protoc', 'pyclient', 'sphinx', 'docker-java-and-python', 'docker-runtime-base'] }
+Set<Project> modsAreBasic = subprojects.findAll {it.name in [
+    'deephaven-wheel',
+    'deephaven2-wheel',
+    'envoy',
+    'grpc-proxy',
+    'web-client-ui',
+    'pyclient',
+    'sphinx',
+    'docker-java-and-python',
+    'docker-runtime-base',
+] }
 
 Set<Project> modsAreBin = subprojects.findAll {it.name in ['bin', 'configs', 'test-configs'] }
 
diff --git a/docker/registry/protoc-base/gradle.properties b/docker/registry/protoc-base/gradle.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..17d7399dd59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/registry/protoc-base/gradle.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+deephaven.registry.imageName=ghcr.io/deephaven/protoc-base:latest
+deephaven.registry.imageId=ghcr.io/deephaven/protoc-base@sha256:25fabb9111d876a14cef357d1e5d78ead942e2dd0c587aa0efff817128516ee8
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/proto/build.gradle b/proto/build.gradle
index da859f20148..621284fc1ec 100644
--- a/proto/build.gradle
+++ b/proto/build.gradle
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 // keep this in sync w/ shadowed/proto/shadow-proto.gradle
 def grpcVersion = '1.38.0'
+
+// TODO(deephaven-core#1685): Create strategy around updating and maintaining protoc version
 def protobufVersion = '3.17.3'
 def protocVersion = protobufVersion
 def boringSslVersion = '2.0.34.Final'
diff --git a/proto/proto-backplane-grpc/Dockerfile b/proto/proto-backplane-grpc/Dockerfile
index 17d72696b41..5900d668241 100644
--- a/proto/proto-backplane-grpc/Dockerfile
+++ b/proto/proto-backplane-grpc/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-FROM deephaven/protoc:local-build
+FROM deephaven/protoc-base:local-build
 
 COPY src/main/proto /includes
 
diff --git a/proto/proto-backplane-grpc/build.gradle b/proto/proto-backplane-grpc/build.gradle
index bc6dbd48634..e3e45168577 100644
--- a/proto/proto-backplane-grpc/build.gradle
+++ b/proto/proto-backplane-grpc/build.gradle
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ plugins {
   id 'com.bmuschko.docker-remote-api'
 }
 
-evaluationDependsOn ':protoc'
+evaluationDependsOn Docker.registryProject('protoc-base')
 
 description = 'The Deephaven proto-backplane-grpc'
 
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ TaskProvider<Task> generateProtobuf = Docker.registerDockerTask(project, 'genera
       }
     }
   }
-  parentContainers = [ project(':protoc').tasks.findByName('buildDocker') ]
+  parentContainers = [ Docker.registryTask(project, 'protoc-base') ]
   containerOutPath = '/generated'
   imageName = 'deephaven/proto-backplane-grpc:local-build'
   copyOut {
diff --git a/protoc/.dockerignore b/protoc/.dockerignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 9528c28e8a5..00000000000
--- a/protoc/.dockerignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-.dockerignore
-build
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/protoc/Dockerfile b/protoc/Dockerfile
deleted file mode 100644
index c465f0f6f5d..00000000000
--- a/protoc/Dockerfile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
-# Basing our image on node, so we can easily install and invoke ts-protoc-gen protoc plugin
-FROM deephaven/node:local-build
-
-WORKDIR /usr/src/app
-
-COPY checksums.txt .
-
-# This version should be the same as the version found in package.json/package-lock.json
-RUN set -eux; \
-    wget -q "https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/download/v3.15.6/protoc-3.15.6-linux-x86_64.zip"; \
-    wget -q "https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/io/grpc/protoc-gen-grpc-java/1.36.1/protoc-gen-grpc-java-1.36.1-linux-x86_64.exe"; \
-    sha256sum --check checksums.txt; \
-    unzip protoc-3.15.6-linux-x86_64.zip -d /opt/protoc; \
-    mv protoc-gen-grpc-java-1.36.1-linux-x86_64.exe /opt/protoc-gen-grpc-java; \
-    chmod +x /opt/protoc-gen-grpc-java; \
-    rm protoc-3.15.6-linux-x86_64.zip
-
-# protoc includes support for python, but not support for grpc python, we need pip to get it
-RUN set -eux; \
-    apt-get update; \
-    apt-get install -y python3-pip; \
-    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*; \
-    pip3 install --upgrade pip; \
-    pip3 install grpcio-tools;
-
-COPY . .
-
-RUN set -eux; \
-    npm ci
-
-#ENTRYPOINT ["/opt/protoc/bin/protoc", \
-#  "--plugin=\"protoc-gen-ts=./node_modules/.bin/protoc-gen-ts\"", \
-#  "--js_out=\"import_style=commonjs,binary:./generated\"", \
-#  "--ts_out=\"./generated\"" ]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/protoc/build.gradle b/protoc/build.gradle
deleted file mode 100644
index 9444a9140aa..00000000000
--- a/protoc/build.gradle
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
-plugins {
-    id 'com.bmuschko.docker-remote-api'
-}
-
-evaluationDependsOn Docker.registryProject('node')
-
-def prepareDocker = project.tasks.register('prepareDocker', Sync) {
-    from(project.projectDir) {
-        exclude 'build'
-        exclude 'build.gradle'
-    }
-    into 'build/docker'
-}
-
-def buildDocker = Docker.registerDockerImage(project, 'buildDocker') {
-    inputs.files prepareDocker.get().outputs.files
-    inputs.files Docker.registryFiles(project, 'node')
-    images.add('deephaven/protoc:local-build')
-}
-
-assemble.dependsOn buildDocker
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/protoc/checksums.txt b/protoc/checksums.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 3c85e53fd10..00000000000
--- a/protoc/checksums.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-38a2f024a0ce68897b1868c59b613939bd41f16c0c8d8890843eccdbbf46ab00  protoc-3.15.6-linux-x86_64.zip
-5b85993c98cda380847d799327bf8937cc81a92908f2737c42b3552d849de841  protoc-gen-grpc-java-1.36.1-linux-x86_64.exe
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/protoc/package-lock.json b/protoc/package-lock.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 6230111d574..00000000000
--- a/protoc/package-lock.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "requires": true,
-  "lockfileVersion": 1,
-  "dependencies": {
-    "google-protobuf": {
-      "version": "3.17.3",
-      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/google-protobuf/-/google-protobuf-3.17.3.tgz",
-      "integrity": "sha512-OVPzcSWIAJ+d5yiHyeaLrdufQtrvaBrF4JQg+z8ynTkbO3uFcujqXszTumqg1cGsAsjkWnI+M5B1xZ19yR4Wyg=="
-    },
-    "ts-protoc-gen": {
-      "version": "0.15.0",
-      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/ts-protoc-gen/-/ts-protoc-gen-0.15.0.tgz",
-      "integrity": "sha512-TycnzEyrdVDlATJ3bWFTtra3SCiEP0W0vySXReAuEygXCUr1j2uaVyL0DhzjwuUdQoW5oXPwk6oZWeA0955V+g==",
-      "requires": {
-        "google-protobuf": "^3.15.5"
-      }
-    }
-  }
-}
diff --git a/protoc/package.json b/protoc/package.json
deleted file mode 100644
index e4baead041b..00000000000
--- a/protoc/package.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "dependencies": {
-    "google-protobuf": "^3.17.3",
-    "ts-protoc-gen": "^0.15.0"
-  },
-  "engines": {
-    "node": "14.x"
-  }
-}
diff --git a/settings.gradle b/settings.gradle
index 4f5dfa4e3da..912fff74ff4 100644
--- a/settings.gradle
+++ b/settings.gradle
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@ include 'DHProcess'
 include 'proto:proto-backplane-grpc'
 include 'proto:proto-backplane-grpc-flight'
 include 'proto:raw-js-openapi'
-include 'protoc'
 
 // logger
 include 'log-factory'