arangojs | The official ArangoDB JavaScript driver | Database library

According to the performance and server config docs, you can enable caching in several ways.

Your method of adding require("@arangodb/aql/cache").properties({ mode: "on" }); to a .js file in the /docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/ directory should work, but keep an eye on the logs. You may need to redirect log output with a different driver (journals, syslog, etc.) to see what's going on. Make sure to run the command via arangosh to see if it works.

If that's a bust, you might want to see if there is a way to pass parameters at runtime (such as --query.cache-mode on). Unfortunately, I don't use Docker Compose, so I can't give you direct advice here, but try something like -e QUERY.CACHE-MODE=ON

If there isn't a way to pass params, then you could modify the config file: /etc/arangodb3/arangod.conf.

And don't forget about the REST API methods for system management. You can access AQL configuration (view and alter) in the Web UI by clicking on the Support -> Rest API -> AQL.

One thing to keep in mind - I'm not sure if the caching settings are global or tied to a specific database. View the configuration on multiple databases (including _system) to test the settings.