cljbridge fails to create Java VM

This:
cljbridge.init_jvm(start_repl=True)

results in:
RuntimeError: Failed to create Java VM. Return code = -1

My context

• MacOS 15.7.2, Python 3.9.6
• tested with Java temurin@17 & temurin@21 (via brew install)

Error

At commandline:

% python3 -m venv .venv           
% source .venv/bin/activate
(.venv) % export PATH=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-17.jdk/Contents/Home/bin:$PATH
(.venv) % export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 17)                       
(.venv) % env | egrep 'JAVA|JDK'
JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-17.jdk/Contents/Home

(.venv) % python3               

At Python REPL:

Python 3.9.6 (default, Oct 17 2025, 17:15:53) 
[Clang 17.0.0 (clang-1700.4.4.1)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from clojurebridge import cljbridge
>>> test_var=10
>>> cljbridge.init_jvm(start_repl=True)
WARNING: Implicit use of clojure.main with options is deprecated, use -M -e (require '[clojure.tools.build.api :as b]'[clojure.string :as str])(let [basis (b/create-basis {:aliases (map keyword [])}) jvm-args (str/join " " (:jvm-opts (:resolve-args basis)))] (println jvm-args))
Unrecognized option: 
Failed to create Java virtual machine.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/foo/projects/myproject/mycodebase/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/javabridge/jutil.py", line 282, in start_thread
    vm.create_mac(args, RQCLS, library_path, libjli_path)
  File "_javabridge.pyx", line 707, in _javabridge.JB_VM.create_mac
RuntimeError: Failed to create Java VM. Return code = -1
Failed to create Java VM
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/foo/projects/myproject/mycodebase/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/clojurebridge/cljbridge.py", line 170, in init_jvm
    javabridge.start_vm(run_headless=True,
  File "/Users/foo/projects/myproject/mycodebase/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/javabridge/jutil.py", line 319, in start_vm
    raise RuntimeError("Failed to start Java VM")
RuntimeError: Failed to start Java VM

cljbridge version: 0.0.8

(.venv) % python3 -m pip install cljbridge
Requirement already satisfied: cljbridge in ./.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages (0.0.8)

まず、報告された macOS と Java のバージョンで cljbridge.init_jvm(start_repl=True) を再現し、次に clojurebridge.cljbridge.init_jvm とその javabridge.start_vm の呼び出しを調べます。“Unrecognized option” の原因となっている空のオプションを特定できるまで、JVM 引数を追跡します。報告された Java 17 または 21 の環境で、エラーなしに VM が正常に起動すれば完了です。