explaingit

sherlock-project/sherlock

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

★ 82,998PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Search for a username across hundreds of social media platforms at once to find where someone has accounts online.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Username search
      Multi-platform check
      Account discovery
    Use cases
      Cybersecurity investigations
      Digital forensics
      Online presence mapping
    Tech stack
      Python
      CLI tool
    Audience
      Security professionals
      Researchers
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Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Investigate a person's online presence across social networks during a security assessment or digital forensics case.

USE CASE 2

Quickly check if a username is available or already taken across multiple platforms before creating new accounts.

USE CASE 3

Gather intelligence on accounts associated with a specific username for threat research or background checks.

What is it built with?

PythonCLI

How does it compare?

sherlock-project/sherlockbregman-arie/devops-exercisesfighting41love/funnlp
Stars82,99882,24980,471
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultyeasyeasyeasy
Complexity2/51/51/5
Audiencedeveloperdeveloperresearcher

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose including commercial, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

sherlock-project/sherlock is a command-line tool that searches for a given username across many social media networks at once. You give it a name and it checks whether an account with that name exists on each platform, reporting back which ones it found. Based on its description and topics, it is used in cybersecurity and digital forensics contexts, for example, to gather information about a person's online presence as part of an investigation or security assessment. It is written in Python and runs on Linux via a command-line interface. The README does not provide further detail about supported platforms, output format, or usage instructions.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I use sherlock to search for a username across social media platforms?
Prompt 2
Show me how to install and run sherlock from the command line to find accounts.
Prompt 3
Can you help me interpret the output from sherlock when it finds matching usernames?

Frequently asked questions

What is sherlock?

Search for a username across hundreds of social media platforms at once to find where someone has accounts online.

What language is sherlock written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, CLI.

What license does sherlock use?

Use freely for any purpose including commercial, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

How hard is sherlock to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is sherlock for?

Mainly developer.

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