Sherlock: Find Social Media Accounts by Username

Ever wondered if that username you love is taken across Twitter, GitHub, or Instagram? Or maybe you're trying to track down an old friend (or a suspicious bot) across platforms. Enter Sherlock, an open-source Python tool that hunts down social media accounts by username—fast.

With over 66k GitHub stars, Sherlock isn’t just another OSINT toy. It’s a developer-friendly utility that scrapes hundreds of sites to see where a username exists. Whether you’re securing your brand, investigating impersonators, or just satisfying curiosity, Sherlock does the heavy lifting.

What It Does

Sherlock checks for a given username across 300+ social networks, forums, and platforms. It automates what would otherwise be hours of manual searching, returning active profiles, dead links, or confirmation that the username isn’t claimed.

Example output:

$ python3 sherlock.py myusername
[*] Checking username myusername...
[+] Twitter: https://twitter.com/myusername
[+] GitHub: https://github.com/myusername
[-] Instagram: Not found!

Why It’s Cool

1. Extensive Coverage: Supports niche platforms like VK, Patreon, and even some regional sites.
2. Fast & Parallelized: Uses async requests to check dozens of sites simultaneously.
3. Privacy-Respecting: Runs locally—no API keys or third-party services needed.
4. Easy to Extend: Contribute new site checks via simple Python modules.

Perfect for:

• Developers securing their handle consistency.
• Researchers mapping online identities.
• Pen-testers verifying footprint reduction.

How to Try It

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock.git
   cd sherlock
   

2. Install dependencies:

   python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Run it:

   python3 sherlock.py --verbose "username"
   

For Docker fans:

docker run theyahya/sherlock myusername

Final Thoughts

Sherlock is one of those tools that feels like cheating. It’s not perfect (some sites block scrapers), but it’s shockingly effective for a weekend-project-turned-community-megatool.

Use it responsibly—stalk your own username, not others’. And if you find gaps? The project welcomes PRs to add more platforms.

Try it: github.com/sherlock-project/sherlock

Pro tip: Combine it with jq for JSON output parsing in scripts. Happy hunting! 🔍