diff --git a/.github/scripts/defaults.sh b/.github/scripts/defaults.sh
index fb83ad00..085d3b43 100755
--- a/.github/scripts/defaults.sh
+++ b/.github/scripts/defaults.sh
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ 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=$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.sbt/boot"
+REMOTE_SBT_OPTS="--batch -Dsbt.server.forcestart=true -Dsbt.ivy.home=$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