diff --git a/tools-image/Dockerfile b/tools-image/Dockerfile
index 2413f2b7d..f53dc114a 100644
--- a/tools-image/Dockerfile
+++ b/tools-image/Dockerfile
@@ -114,7 +114,11 @@ RUN set -eux; \
     /tools-rootfs/agentenv/bin/busybox --list | grep -qx 'runsv' || \
       { echo "BusyBox runsv applet missing; rebuild with CONFIG_RUNSV=y" >&2; exit 1; }; \
     /tools-rootfs/agentenv/bin/busybox --list | grep -qx 'svlogd' || \
-      { echo "BusyBox svlogd applet missing; rebuild with CONFIG_SVLOGD=y" >&2; exit 1; }
+      { echo "BusyBox svlogd applet missing; rebuild with CONFIG_SVLOGD=y" >&2; exit 1; }; \
+    /tools-rootfs/agentenv/bin/busybox --list | grep -qx 'nice' || \
+      { echo "BusyBox nice applet missing; rebuild with CONFIG_NICE=y" >&2; exit 1; }; \
+    /tools-rootfs/agentenv/bin/busybox --list | grep -qx 'ionice' || \
+      { echo "BusyBox ionice applet missing; rebuild with CONFIG_IONICE=y" >&2; exit 1; }
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Stage 3: materialize the rootfs as an ext4 disk image.
diff --git a/tools-image/pivot-init b/tools-image/pivot-init
index 8803b3713..ddad3ebc8 100644
--- a/tools-image/pivot-init
+++ b/tools-image/pivot-init
@@ -95,13 +95,17 @@ fi
 # Expose envd as a stable guest command.
 $BB ln -sf /agentenv/envd /usr/local/bin/envd
 
-# envd 0.5.x starts guest processes through /usr/bin/nice. Minimal user images
-# do not always ship coreutils, so provide a BusyBox-backed fallback without
-# overriding an image that already has a real nice(1).
+# envd wraps guest processes in `/usr/bin/ionice ... /usr/bin/nice ...`. Minimal
+# user images (Alpine/musl, distroless, FROM scratch) do not always ship
+# coreutils or util-linux, so provide BusyBox-backed fallbacks without
+# overriding an image that already has real nice(1)/ionice(1).
 $BB mkdir -p /usr/bin
 if [ ! -x /usr/bin/nice ]; then
     $BB ln -sf /agentenv/bin/busybox /usr/bin/nice
 fi
+if [ ! -x /usr/bin/ionice ]; then
+    $BB ln -sf /agentenv/bin/busybox /usr/bin/ionice
+fi
 
 # Prepare remaining runtime directories envd and the guest init commonly
 # expect (/run is already mounted above as a tmpfs).