diff --git a/docs/maintainers/handbook.md b/docs/maintainers/handbook.md
index 8cb36356..f4d7f035 100644
--- a/docs/maintainers/handbook.md
+++ b/docs/maintainers/handbook.md
@@ -8,6 +8,15 @@ You can run `abra recipe new <recipe>` to generate a new `~/.abra/recipes/<recip
 
 ## Hacking on an existing recipe
 
+!!! warning
+
+    It is *very advisable* to disable any `healthcheck: ...` configuration
+    while hacking on new recipes. This is because it is very easy to mess up
+    and it will stop Traefik or other web proxies routing the app. You can
+    enable a specific healthcheck later when your recipe is stable. The default
+    "unconfigured" healthcheck behaviour is much less strict and it's faster to
+    get something up and running.
+
 If you want to make changes to an existing recipe then you can simply edit the files in `~/.abra/recipes/<recipe-name>` and run pass `--chaos` to the `deploy` command when deploying those changes. `abra` will not deploy unstaged changes to avoid instability but you can tell it to do so with `--chaos`. This means ou can simple hack away on the existing recipe files on your local file system and then when something is working, submit a change request to the recipe upstream.
 
 ## How is a recipe structured?