diff --git a/docs/maintainers/handbook.md b/docs/maintainers/handbook.md
index d6577cfb..cc5ffbd7 100644
--- a/docs/maintainers/handbook.md
+++ b/docs/maintainers/handbook.md
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ title: Packaging handbook
 
 You can run `abra recipe new <recipe>` to generate a new `~/.abra/recipes/<recipe>` repository. The generated repository is a copy of [`coop-cloud/example`](https://git.coopcloud.tech/coop-cloud/example).
 
+## Hacking on an existing recipe
+
+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?
 
 ### `compose.yml`