diff --git a/.github/scripts/defaults.sh b/.github/scripts/defaults.sh
index fb83ad00..6013d7d4 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/defaults.sh
+++ b/.github/scripts/defaults.sh
@@ -14,9 +14,6 @@ REMOTE_CHIPYARD_DIR=$GITHUB_WORKSPACE
 REMOTE_SIM_DIR=$REMOTE_CHIPYARD_DIR/sims/verilator
 REMOTE_FIRESIM_DIR=$REMOTE_CHIPYARD_DIR/sims/firesim/sim
 REMOTE_FPGA_DIR=$REMOTE_CHIPYARD_DIR/fpga
-REMOTE_JAVA_OPTS="-Xmx10G -Xss8M"
-# Disable the supershell to greatly improve the readability of SBT output when captured by Circle CI
-REMOTE_SBT_OPTS="-Dsbt.ivy.home=$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.ivy2 -Dsbt.supershell=false -Dsbt.global.base=$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.sbt -Dsbt.boot.directory=$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.sbt/boot"
 
 # local variables (aka within the docker container)
 LOCAL_CHIPYARD_DIR=$GITHUB_WORKSPACE
@@ -26,7 +23,8 @@ LOCAL_FIRESIM_DIR=$LOCAL_CHIPYARD_DIR/sims/firesim/sim
 # CI uses temp directories with very long names
 # explicitly force socket creation to use /tmp to avoid name length errors
 # https://github.com/sbt/sbt/pull/6887
-JAVA_TMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d -t ci-cy-XXXXXXXX)
+REMOTE_JAVA_TMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d -t ci-cy-XXXXXXXX)
+REMOTE_COURSIER_CACHE=$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.coursier-cache
 
 # key value store to get the build groups
 declare -A grouping
diff --git a/.github/scripts/remote-do-rtl-build.sh b/.github/scripts/remote-do-rtl-build.sh
index b5755d01..445c1c31 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/remote-do-rtl-build.sh
+++ b/.github/scripts/remote-do-rtl-build.sh
@@ -52,6 +52,8 @@ read -a keys <<< ${grouping[$1]}
 # need to set the PATH to use the new verilator (with the new verilator root)
 for key in "${keys[@]}"
 do
-    export COURSIER_CACHE=$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.coursier-cache
-    make -j$REMOTE_MAKE_NPROC -C $REMOTE_MAKE_DIR FIRRTL_LOGLEVEL=info JAVA_TMP_DIR=$JAVA_TMP_DIR SBT_OPTS="$REMOTE_SBT_OPTS" ${mapping[$key]}
+    export COURSIER_CACHE=$REMOTE_COURSIER_CACHE
+    export JVM_MEMORY=10G
+    export JAVA_TMP_DIR=$REMOTE_JAVA_TMP_DIR
+    make -j$REMOTE_MAKE_NPROC -C $REMOTE_MAKE_DIR FIRRTL_LOGLEVEL=info ${mapping[$key]}
 done
diff --git a/.github/scripts/remote-run-firesim-scala-tests.sh b/.github/scripts/remote-run-firesim-scala-tests.sh
index 960d1706..70a41e27 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/remote-run-firesim-scala-tests.sh
+++ b/.github/scripts/remote-run-firesim-scala-tests.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ cd $REMOTE_CHIPYARD_DIR
 
 # Run Firesim Scala Tests
 export FIRESIM_ENV_SOURCED=1;
-export COURSIER_CACHE=$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.coursier-cache
-JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="$REMOTE_JAVA_OPTS -Djava.io.tmpdir=$(mktemp -d -t cy-fsim-XXXXXXXX)"
-make -C $REMOTE_FIRESIM_DIR JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="$JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS" SBT_OPTS="$REMOTE_SBT_OPTS" TARGET_SBT_PROJECT="{file:$REMOTE_CHIPYARD_DIR}firechip" testOnly ${mapping[$1]}
+export COURSIER_CACHE=$REMOTE_COURSIER_CACHE
+export JVM_MEMORY=10G
+export JAVA_TMP_DIR=$REMOTE_JAVA_TMP_DIR
+make -C $REMOTE_FIRESIM_DIR TARGET_SBT_PROJECT="{file:$REMOTE_CHIPYARD_DIR}firechip" testOnly ${mapping[$1]}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/chipyard-full-flow.yml b/.github/workflows/chipyard-full-flow.yml
index 23bc7152..7fe09a23 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/chipyard-full-flow.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/chipyard-full-flow.yml
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           cd ${{ env.REMOTE_WORK_DIR }}
           eval "$(conda shell.bash hook)"
+          mkdir ${{ env.JAVA_TMP_DIR }}
           export MAKEFLAGS="-j32"
           ./build-setup.sh -f
 
diff --git a/variables.mk b/variables.mk
index 27d9645b..28727a26 100644
--- a/variables.mk
+++ b/variables.mk
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ sim_common_files       ?= $(build_dir)/sim_files.common.f
 #########################################################################################
 JAVA_HEAP_SIZE ?= 8G
 JAVA_TMP_DIR ?= $(base_dir)/.java_tmp
-export JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS ?= -Xmx$(JAVA_HEAP_SIZE) -Xss8M -Djava.io.tmpdir=$(JAVA_TMP_DIR)
+export JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS ?= -Xmx$(JAVA_HEAP_SIZE) -Xss8M -Dsbt.supershell=false -Djava.io.tmpdir=$(JAVA_TMP_DIR)
 
 #########################################################################################
 # default sbt launch command