diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1c83dfd0e0..5ba68765a5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ Main (unreleased)
 - Updated Snowflake exporter with performance improvements for larger environments. 
   Also added a new panel to track deleted tables to the Snowflake mixin. (@Caleb-Hurshman)
 
+- Changed the cluster startup behaviour, reverting to the previous logic where
+  a failure to resolve cluster join peers results in the node creating its own cluster. This is
+  to facilitate the process of bootstrapping a new cluster following user feedback (@thampiotr)
+
 ### Bugfixes
 
 - Fix a bug where custom components don't always get updated when the config is modified in an imported directory. (@ante012)
diff --git a/internal/service/cluster/cluster.go b/internal/service/cluster/cluster.go
index 3a2d0dbb54..b3c7de811e 100644
--- a/internal/service/cluster/cluster.go
+++ b/internal/service/cluster/cluster.go
@@ -275,10 +275,9 @@ func (s *Service) Run(ctx context.Context, host service.Host) error {
 
 	peers, err := s.getPeers()
 	if err != nil {
-		// Fatal failure on startup if we can't discover peers to prevent a split brain and give a clear signal to the user.
-		// NOTE: currently returning error from `Run` will not be handled correctly: https://github.com/grafana/alloy/issues/843
-		level.Error(s.log).Log("msg", "fatal error: failed to get peers to join at startup - this is likely a configuration error", "err", err)
-		os.Exit(1)
+		// Warn when failed to get peers on startup as it can result in a split brain. We do not fail hard here
+		// because it would complicate the process of bootstrapping a new cluster.
+		level.Warn(s.log).Log("msg", "failed to get peers to join at startup; will create a new cluster", "err", err)
 	}
 
 	// We log on info level including all the peers (without any abbreviation), as it's happening only on startup and