diff --git a/examples/helm-charts/.gitignore b/examples/helm-charts/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..256f93352c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/helm-charts/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+podinfo/
diff --git a/examples/helm-charts/0001-example-patch.patch b/examples/helm-charts/0001-example-patch.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..076351d371
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/helm-charts/0001-example-patch.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+From 6a7f74a9717d63033810d0ca3fa96fb8c41f5323 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Blake Burkhart <blake@defenseunicorns.com>
+Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:13:53 -0500
+Subject: [PATCH] example patch
+
+---
+ charts/podinfo/templates/deployment.yaml | 2 +-
+ 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
+
+diff --git a/charts/podinfo/templates/deployment.yaml b/charts/podinfo/templates/deployment.yaml
+index 87ed373..4385fb8 100644
+--- a/charts/podinfo/templates/deployment.yaml
++++ b/charts/podinfo/templates/deployment.yaml
+@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ spec:
+       serviceAccountName: {{ template "podinfo.serviceAccountName" . }}
+       {{- end }}
+       containers:
+-        - name: {{ .Chart.Name }}
++        - name: {{ .Chart.Name }}-patched
+           image: "{{ .Values.image.repository }}:{{ .Values.image.tag }}"
+           imagePullPolicy: {{ .Values.image.pullPolicy }}
+           {{- if .Values.securityContext }}
+-- 
+2.50.1 (Apple Git-155)
+
diff --git a/examples/helm-charts/readme.md b/examples/helm-charts/readme.md
index aba6af6be7..76b293b379 100644
--- a/examples/helm-charts/readme.md
+++ b/examples/helm-charts/readme.md
@@ -1 +1,5 @@
-This example shows the many ways you can deploy Helm Charts with Zarf. To learn more about how `charts` work in Zarf, see the [Helm Charts section](/ref/components/#helm-charts) of the package components documentation.
\ No newline at end of file
+This example shows the many ways you can deploy Helm Charts with Zarf. To learn more about how `charts` work in Zarf, see the [Helm Charts section](/ref/components/#helm-charts) of the package components documentation.
+
+To customize Helm charts you should utilize Helm value overrides or consider upstreaming any required modifications to Helm charts. But if these options are insufficient, you may need to make custom modifications to a Helm chart. Typically, you might fork the upstream Helm chart's git repository and periodically rebase or merge in new upstream changes.
+
+The `demo-patched-helm-chart` component an alternative method using a [Zarf `onCreate` action](/ref/actions/), which performs a `git clone` of the upstream git repository and applies patch files with `git am`. This is conceptually equivalent to rebasing a set of changes onto the upstream repository, and is a useful technique to apply some minor changes to an upstream repository. If more complexity is required, or if you need to make changes to the patches frequently, maintaining a fork of the upstream repository may be more appropriate. To create patches, clone the upstream repository, commit your changes locally and use [`git format-patch`](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-format-patch) to generate patches.
diff --git a/examples/helm-charts/zarf.yaml b/examples/helm-charts/zarf.yaml
index ed0617852a..d7950b0bd6 100644
--- a/examples/helm-charts/zarf.yaml
+++ b/examples/helm-charts/zarf.yaml
@@ -55,10 +55,38 @@ components:
         releaseName: cool-release-name
         valuesFiles:
           - values.yaml
+
     images:
       - ghcr.io/stefanprodan/podinfo:6.4.0
       # This is the cosign signature for the podinfo image for image signature verification
       - ghcr.io/stefanprodan/podinfo:sha256-57a654ace69ec02ba8973093b6a786faa15640575fbf0dbb603db55aca2ccec8.sig
 
+  - name: demo-patched-helm-chart
+    required: true
+    images:
+      - ghcr.io/stefanprodan/podinfo:6.4.0
+      - ghcr.io/stefanprodan/podinfo:sha256-57a654ace69ec02ba8973093b6a786faa15640575fbf0dbb603db55aca2ccec8.sig
+    charts:
+      - name: podinfo-patched
+        version: 6.4.0
+        namespace: podinfo-from-git-patched
+        # In this case `localPath` will load the local podinfo chart which is created by the `onCreate` action
+        localPath: podinfo/charts/podinfo
+        valuesFiles:
+          - values.yaml
+    # git clone podinfo/ for podinfo-patched chart and apply patches (typically created with `git format-patch`)
+    # This is a simple method to apply modifications to a Helm chart that is not under your control, if value overrides are not sufficient
+    actions:
+      onCreate:
+        before:
+          - cmd: |
+              # Clone and apply patches to git repo
+              rm -rf podinfo
+              git clone -b 6.4.0 --depth 1 -c advice.detachedHead=false https://github.com/stefanprodan/podinfo.git
+              cd podinfo
+              export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="zarf"
+              export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL="zarf@invalid"
+              git am --3way ../*.patch  # will error if the patch does not apply cleanly
+
 documentation:
   readme: readme.md