aeondave/sherlock

Sherlock

Username hunter across 400+ social platforms.

Quick Start

pip install sherlock-project

# Search single username
sherlock username

# Search multiple usernames
sherlock user1 user2 user3

# Output to file
sherlock username --output results.txt

# JSON output
sherlock username --json

Core Flags

| Flag | Purpose | |------|---------| | --timeout N | Per-site timeout (default: 60s) | | --print-found | Only show found accounts | | --print-all | Show all (including not found) | | --output FILE | Save results | | --json | JSON format | | --site NAME | Search specific site only | | --csv | CSV output | | -x XLSX | Excel output |

Common Workflows

Hunt username from breach data:

sherlock johndoe_83 --print-found --output johndoe_found.txt

Multiple username variants:

sherlock "john.doe" johndoe john_doe jdoe --print-found

Targeted site lookup:

sherlock johndoe --site twitter --site github --site linkedin

From breach data — test common variations at once:

sherlock john.doe johndoe john_doe j.doe jdoe83 --print-found --timeout 10

Username Variation Strategy

Given a real name "John Doe" or email [email protected]:

johndoe, john.doe, john_doe, jdoe, j.doe, johndoe83, jdoe83
firstname+lastname, firstnamelastname, last.first
Add: year of birth, numbers 1/2/_, common suffixes (_real, _official)

vs maigret

| | sherlock | maigret | |--|---------|---------| | Sites | ~400 | 2800+ | | Output | URL list | Full dossier (scraped data) | | Speed | Fast | Slower | | Best for | Quick platform sweep | Deep profile building |

Use sherlock for fast sweep, maigret for deep investigation.

Resources

| File | When to load | |------|--------------| | references/username-techniques.md | Username generation, variation tools, pivot strategies, platform-specific tips |