diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6a901bb236..e468e2bd91 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -44,6 +44,11 @@ A brief description of the categories of changes:
   stage2 bootstrap template.
 * (bzlmod) Properly handle relative path URLs in parse_simpleapi_html.bzl
 * (gazelle) Correctly resolve deps that have top-level module overlap with a gazelle_python.yaml dep module
+* (rules) Make `RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE`-based invocations work when used with
+  {obj}`--bootstrap_impl=script`. This fixes invocations using non-sandboxed
+  test execution with `--enable_runfiles=false --build_runfile_manifests=true`.
+  ([#2186](https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_python/issues/2186)).
+
 
 ### Added
 * (rules) Executables provide {obj}`PyExecutableInfo`, which contains
diff --git a/python/private/stage1_bootstrap_template.sh b/python/private/stage1_bootstrap_template.sh
index 959e7babe6..e7e418cafb 100644
--- a/python/private/stage1_bootstrap_template.sh
+++ b/python/private/stage1_bootstrap_template.sh
@@ -44,10 +44,10 @@ else
       echo "$RUNFILES_DIR"
       return 0
     elif [[ "${RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE:-}" = *".runfiles_manifest" ]]; then
-      echo "${RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE%%.runfiles_manifest}"
+      echo "${RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE%%.runfiles_manifest}.runfiles"
       return 0
     elif [[ "${RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE:-}" = *".runfiles/MANIFEST" ]]; then
-      echo "${RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE%%.runfiles/MANIFEST}"
+      echo "${RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE%%.runfiles/MANIFEST}.runfiles"
       return 0
     fi
 
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@ else
     if [[ "$stub_filename" != /* ]]; then
       stub_filename="$PWD/$stub_filename"
     fi
-
     while true; do
       module_space="${stub_filename}.runfiles"
       if [[ -d "$module_space" ]]; then
diff --git a/tests/bootstrap_impls/run_binary_zip_no_test.sh b/tests/bootstrap_impls/run_binary_zip_no_test.sh
index 2ee69f3f66..c45cae54cd 100755
--- a/tests/bootstrap_impls/run_binary_zip_no_test.sh
+++ b/tests/bootstrap_impls/run_binary_zip_no_test.sh
@@ -29,15 +29,46 @@ if [[ -z "$bin" ]]; then
   echo "Unable to locate test binary: $BIN_RLOCATION"
   exit 1
 fi
-actual=$($bin 2>&1)
-
-# How we detect if a zip file was executed from depends on which bootstrap
-# is used.
-# bootstrap_impl=script outputs RULES_PYTHON_ZIP_DIR=<somepath>
-# bootstrap_impl=system_python outputs file:.*Bazel.runfiles
-expected_pattern="Hello"
-if ! (echo "$actual" | grep "$expected_pattern" ) >/dev/null; then
-  echo "expected output to match: $expected_pattern"
-  echo "but got:\n$actual"
+
+function test_invocation() {
+  actual=$($bin)
+  # How we detect if a zip file was executed from depends on which bootstrap
+  # is used.
+  # bootstrap_impl=script outputs RULES_PYTHON_ZIP_DIR=<somepath>
+  # bootstrap_impl=system_python outputs file:.*Bazel.runfiles
+  expected_pattern="Hello"
+  if ! (echo "$actual" | grep "$expected_pattern" ) >/dev/null; then
+    echo "Test case failed: $1"
+    echo "expected output to match: $expected_pattern"
+    echo "but got:\n$actual"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+}
+
+# Test invocation with RUNFILES_DIR set
+unset RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE
+if [[ ! -e "$RUNFILES_DIR" ]]; then
+  echo "Runfiles doesn't exist: $RUNFILES_DIR"
   exit 1
 fi
+test_invocation "using RUNFILES_DIR"
+
+
+orig_runfiles_dir="$RUNFILES_DIR"
+unset RUNFILES_DIR
+
+# Test invocation using manifest within runfiles directory (output manifest)
+# NOTE: this file may not actually exist in our test, but that's OK; the
+# bootstrap just uses the path to find the runfiles directory.
+export RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE="$orig_runfiles_dir/MANIFEST"
+test_invocation "using RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE with output manifest"
+
+# Test invocation using manifest outside runfiles (input manifest)
+# NOTE: this file may not actually exist in our test, but that's OK; the
+# bootstrap just uses the path to find the runfiles directory.
+export RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE="${orig_runfiles_dir%%.runfiles}.runfiles_manifest"
+test_invocation "using RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE with input manifest"
+
+# Test invocation without any runfiles env vars set
+unset RUNFILES_MANIFEST_FILE
+test_invocation "using no runfiles env vars"