hey @haileycoop it uses the same identity and database (all stored in ~/.ssb on your computer if it's mac/ linux).

The interface of patchbay isn't nearly as polished as Patchwork. It's like a parallel testing ground in some ways, but it's also optimised more for devs (see vim keyboard shortcuts, and access to raw message data).
Oh and it has chess, and will soon have book reviews ... there are already book reviews in the data, but someone is getting an MVP interface up.

If you have a recent version of node installed (7 or 8) It should be as easy as

git clone https://github.com/ssbc/patchbay.git
cd patchbay
npm install
npm run rebuild
npm start

You can't easily run Patchbay and Patchwork at the same time at the moment - they use the same ports. It will just not start (you don't need to worry about corrupting anything). So close one before you open the other.