diff --git a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/00-alpine-user-group.sh b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.essential/00-alpine-user-group.sh
similarity index 100%
rename from pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/00-alpine-user-group.sh
rename to pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.essential/00-alpine-user-group.sh
diff --git a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/01-alpine-ash-as-bash.sh b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.essential/01-alpine-ash-as-bash.sh
similarity index 100%
rename from pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/01-alpine-ash-as-bash.sh
rename to pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.essential/01-alpine-ash-as-bash.sh
diff --git a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/10-alpine-prep.sh b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.essential/10-alpine-prep.sh
similarity index 100%
rename from pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/10-alpine-prep.sh
rename to pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.essential/10-alpine-prep.sh
diff --git a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.sh b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.sh
index ab65c7192b7..404ad528efc 100644
--- a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.sh
+++ b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.sh
@@ -36,8 +36,17 @@ CODE=0
 # has run because it might move the directories to /mnt/data on first boot. In that
 # case changes made on restart would be lost.
 
+# The boot.essential scripts are executed in plain mode too.
+for f in "${LIMA_CIDATA_MNT}"/boot.essential/*.sh; do
+  INFO "Executing $f"
+  if ! "$f"; then
+    WARNING "Failed to execute $f"
+    CODE=1
+  fi
+done
+
 if [ "$LIMA_CIDATA_PLAIN" = "1" ]; then
-	INFO "Plain mode. Skipping to run boot scripts. Provisioning scripts will be still executed. Guest agent will not be running."
+	INFO "Plain mode. Skipping to run non-essential boot scripts. Provisioning scripts will be still executed. Guest agent will not be running."
 else
 	for f in "${LIMA_CIDATA_MNT}"/boot/*; do
 		INFO "Executing $f"
diff --git a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/DO_NOT_ADD_MORE_SCRIPTS.txt b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/DO_NOT_ADD_MORE_SCRIPTS.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7ec1d4e2b8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot/DO_NOT_ADD_MORE_SCRIPTS.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+The "essential" scripts are limited to scripts that are essential even in the "plain" mode (`limactl create --plain`).
+
+Do not add more scripts to this `boot.essential` directory, unless they are really essential.
diff --git a/website/content/en/docs/dev/internals.md b/website/content/en/docs/dev/internals.md
index 53701be3a31..ad94d42de59 100644
--- a/website/content/en/docs/dev/internals.md
+++ b/website/content/en/docs/dev/internals.md
@@ -162,6 +162,7 @@ See [Building Ansible inventories](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/inven
 - `lima-guestagent`: Lima guest agent binary
 - `nerdctl-full.tgz`: [`nerdctl-full-<VERSION>-<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz`](https://github.com/containerd/nerdctl/releases)
 - `boot.sh`: Boot script
+- `boot.essential/*`: Boot script modules (executed in "plain" mode too)
 - `boot/*`: Boot script modules
 - `util/*`: Utility command scripts, executed in the boot script modules
 - `provision.system/*`: Custom provision scripts (system)