diff --git a/.github/container/ejabberdctl.template b/.github/container/ejabberdctl.template
index 22e4177b1..e7e112ffa 100755
--- a/.github/container/ejabberdctl.template
+++ b/.github/container/ejabberdctl.template
@@ -331,13 +331,18 @@ post_waiter_loop()
     LIST=$@
     HEAD=${LIST%% ; *}
     TAIL=${LIST#* ; }
-    echo ":> ejabberdctl $HEAD"
-    $0 $HEAD
+    HEAD2=${HEAD#\! *}
+    echo ":> ejabberdctl $HEAD2"
+    $0 $HEAD2
     ctlstatus=$?
     if [ $ctlstatus -ne 0 ] ; then
-        echo ":> FAILURE in command '$HEAD' !!! Stopping ejabberd..."
-        $0 halt > /dev/null
-        exit $ctlstatus
+        if [ "$HEAD" != "$HEAD2" ] ; then
+            echo ":> FAILURE in command '$HEAD2' !!! Ignoring result"
+        else
+            echo ":> FAILURE in command '$HEAD' !!! Stopping ejabberd..."
+            $0 halt > /dev/null
+            exit $ctlstatus
+        fi
     fi
     [ "$HEAD" = "$TAIL" ] || post_waiter_loop $TAIL
 }
diff --git a/CONTAINER.md b/CONTAINER.md
index 7c7c233ef..06d01dbcc 100644
--- a/CONTAINER.md
+++ b/CONTAINER.md
@@ -221,10 +221,13 @@ and reads `CTL_ON_START` every time the container is started.
 Those variables can contain one ejabberdctl command,
 or several commands separated with the blankspace and `;` characters.
 
+By default failure of any of commands executed that way would
+abort start, this can be disabled by prefixing commands with `!`
+
 Example usage (or check the [full example](#customized-example)):
 ```yaml
     environment:
-      - CTL_ON_CREATE=register admin localhost asd
+      - CTL_ON_CREATE=\! register admin localhost asd
       - CTL_ON_START=stats registeredusers ;
                      check_password admin localhost asd ;
                      status
@@ -411,7 +414,9 @@ In this example, the main container is created first.
 Once it is fully started and healthy, a second container is created,
 and once ejabberd is started in it, it joins the first one.
 
-An account is registered in the first node when created,
+An account is registered in the first node when created (and
+we ignore errors that can happen when doing that - for example
+whenn account already exists),
 and it should exist in the second node after join.
 
 Notice that in this example the main container does not have access
@@ -428,7 +433,7 @@ services:
     environment:
       - ERLANG_NODE_ARG=ejabberd@main
       - ERLANG_COOKIE=dummycookie123
-      - CTL_ON_CREATE=register admin localhost asd
+      - CTL_ON_CREATE=\! register admin localhost asd
 
   replica:
     image: ghcr.io/processone/ejabberd