sherlock/.actor

Sherlock Actor on Apify

This Actor wraps the Sherlock Project to provide serverless username reconnaissance across social networks in the cloud. It helps you find usernames across multiple social media platforms without installing and running the tool locally.

What are Actors?

Actors are serverless microservices running on the Apify Platform. They are based on the Actor SDK and can be found in the Apify Store. Learn more about Actors in the Apify Whitepaper.

Usage

Apify Console

1. Go to the Apify Actor page
2. Click "Run"
3. In the input form, fill in Username(s) to search for
4. The Actor will run and produce its outputs in the default datastore

Apify CLI

apify call YOUR_USERNAME/sherlock --input='{
  "usernames": ["johndoe", "janedoe"]
}'

Using Apify API

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~sherlock/run" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN' \
  --data '{
  "usernames": ["johndoe", "janedoe"],
  }
}'

Input Parameters

The Actor accepts a JSON schema with the following structure:

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
usernames	array	Yes	-	List of usernames to search for
usernames[]	string	Yes	"json"	Username to search for

Example Input

{
  "usernames": ["techuser", "designuser"],
}

Output

The Actor provides three types of outputs:

Dataset Record*

Field	Type	Required	Description
username	string	Yes	Username the search was conducted for
links	array	Yes	Array with found links to the social media
links[]	string	No	URL to the account

Example Dataset Item (JSON)

{
  "username": "johndoe",
  "links": [
    "https://github.com/johndoe" 
  ]
}

Performance & Resources

• Memory Requirements:
  • Minimum: 512 MB RAM
  • Recommended: 1 GB RAM for multiple usernames
• Processing Time:
  • Single username: ~1-2 minutes
  • Multiple usernames: 2-5 minutes
  • Varies based on number of sites checked and response times

For more help, check the Sherlock Project documentation or raise an issue in the Actor's repository.