In boot.py you find the commands executed when booting up MicroPython. This file is created in ../ports/esp32/modules/inisetup.py. I added the command:
from upysh import *
which gives you access to all upysh commands. Type man to see the commands available.
Including user C modules
Sometimes it may be needed to write modules in C, which can be called by MicroPython. A typical example is the readout of the DHT11 when we want to get access to the raw data sent through the DHT11 proprietary protocol. The serial data bits come in too fast to be treated by Python code. To include such a module we add a user_module (could be any name) directory in which we create the module directory (dht11Raw in case of the DHT11). Into this directory we put the C code and a micropython.mk file.