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Sherlock is a free, open-source command-line tool that checks a username against profile URL patterns for sites in its catalog. It can surface profiles to investigate, but it cannot prove that an account exists in every case or that different profiles belong to the same person.

What Sherlock checks

Sherlock takes a username and tests profile URLs associated with sites in its catalog. The project says that catalog covers 400+ sites; this is an undated count published by the Sherlock supported-sites page, and the catalog can change. The list is not limited to conventional social networks.

For each site, Sherlock uses a configured URL pattern and a detection rule to infer whether a matching profile may be present. A result is therefore a lead to verify on the destination site, not confirmation of a person’s identity.

How to search for a username

After installing Sherlock using the project’s current instructions, run its command from a terminal:

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sherlock user123

Replace user123 with the username you want to check. The project README documents passing multiple usernames in one run and saving results as individual text files by default. It also lists options for selecting sites, exporting CSV or XLSX, using a proxy, loading local site data, and including NSFW sites. Exact options can depend on the installed release, so consult the current repository README rather than assuming every flag on older documentation applies to your version.

How accurate is Sherlock?

Sherlock does not establish that two accounts are operated by the same person. It checks responses from websites and applies site-specific rules; a positive result should be opened and reviewed directly. Usernames may be shared, reused, or changed, and a matching profile URL alone is not proof of identity.

Results can also be wrong or incomplete. A site may change its pages or response codes, block automated requests, be temporarily unavailable, or respond in a way that confuses a detection rule. The project’s integration documentation describes HTTP-status detection as comparatively reliable where a site clearly signals a missing page. For error-message matching, it cautions: “This is the least reliable detection method.” Such matches are fragile when a site changes its wording or behavior.

The project’s contributor guidance asks maintainers to check definitions for false positives and false negatives. Version 0.16.0 added regular testing and automatic exclusion for targets prone to false positives, but site changes can still affect results and the number of effectively usable checks.

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How to install Sherlock

Available installation routes include pipx, pip, Docker, and package-manager options. The project’s installation page and repository README should be treated as the source of current instructions and support status. The README warns that third-party packages for ParrotOS and Ubuntu 24.04 appear broken, and recommends pipx, uv, pip, or Docker for users on those systems. Community-maintained packages may not be supported in the same way as the project’s directly documented methods.

Check the README for the options in your installed release: the repository README describes version 0.16.0, while the hosted usage page displays version 0.14.3. That difference makes the repository the safer reference for current command details.

Use results responsibly

Use username searches for legitimate purposes, such as reviewing your own online presence or authorized security work. Verify any apparent match on the destination site and consider the people affected before acting on it. Sherlock’s documented checks do not provide a jurisdiction-specific legal assessment or establish that every use is appropriate.

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