---
id: sherlock-project
version: "0.16.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# sherlock-project — Hunt down social media accounts by username across social networks

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 113.8K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Sherlock is a command-line tool that hunts for usernames across a large set of social networks and online platforms. You give it one or more usernames, and it queries each network to see if an account exists there, then reports back which sites have matches. It's built on requests and requests-futures for parallel lookups, with support for Tor routing, proxy configuration, and output to CSV or Excel.

The tool is designed for OSINT (open-source intelligence) and reconnaissance work—finding digital footprints of a person or identity across the internet. It runs on Python 3.9 through 3.13 and handles both single and batch username searches from the command line.

Use it for:

- Verify whether a username is available across multiple platforms before registering a new account
- Conduct OSINT investigations to map out all online accounts associated with a specific username
- Batch-check a list of usernames to identify which social networks they're registered on
- Export account discovery results to CSV or Excel for reporting or further analysis
- Route searches through Tor or a proxy to maintain anonymity during reconnaissance

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Searches for usernames across 400+ social networks to identify and locate accounts associated with a given identity.

Yes, if you need to search for usernames across many social networks at once. The tool is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses permissive MIT licensing, and low install friction. It's a solid fit for OSINT work or account verification workflows. Not necessary if you only need to check one or two specific platforms.

## Install

pip install sherlock-project
uv add sherlock-project
poetry add sherlock-project

## Installing sherlock-project

Before you install: Low friction install with a wheel distribution. Active maintenance with recent commits and a large community presence (89488 stars). Eight runtime dependencies are all well-established libraries, suggesting straightforward setup.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive and imposes minimal restrictions—you can use, modify, and distribute the package freely in both open-source and commercial contexts.

Quickstart:

pip install sherlock-project
sherlock user123
sherlock user1 user2 user3 --csv

Verify before relying:

- Whether the 400+ social networks figure remains current or if the actual list varies by version
- Whether Tor and proxy features work reliably across all supported platforms
- Performance characteristics when searching for multiple users simultaneously

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 113.8K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

username search across social networks, osint social media reconnaissance, find accounts by username, social network account lookup, username enumeration tool, cross-platform account finder, information gathering by username, osint, reconnaissance, username-lookup

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/sherlock-project) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/sherlock-project/)