soxoj/maigret

What it does

Maigret is a Python OSINT tool for username reconnaissance. Given one or more usernames, it checks whether accounts exist across a database of roughly 5,900 sites, extracts profile data and linked identities from the pages it finds, and assembles the results into reports. It is aimed at investigators, penetration testers, red teams, and researchers who need a fast starting point for open-source account discovery.

The core mechanism is enumeration plus extraction: a default scan checks the 500 highest-traffic sites, -a covers the full database, and --tags limits checks by category or country. Discovered usernames and IDs can feed a recursive search, and findings can be exported as HTML, PDF, XMind, JSON, CSV, TXT, a D3 graph, or a Neo4j Cypher script features. An optional --ai mode sends a generated Markdown report to an OpenAI-compatible API for a short summary.

Quick start

Requires Python 3.10 or newer. Install from PyPI and run a search:

pip install maigret
maigret YOUR_USERNAME

To save an HTML report, add --html. Other entry points include a standalone Windows executable from Releases, a Snap package, and Docker images: soxoj/maigret:latest for CLI and soxoj/maigret:web for the web UI. The web interface can also be started locally with maigret --web 5000, then opened at http://127.0.0.1:5000 installation usage.

Constraints and caveats

• Results are heuristic. Common or short usernames produce false positives because unrelated people often share the same handle; a match does not confirm identity. This was the dominant complaint in the 2022 Hacker News discussion comment comment.
• PDF export is an optional extra (pip install 'maigret[pdf]') and needs system graphics libraries on Linux/macOS.
• The AI summary needs OPENAI_API_KEY and sends collected findings to an external chat-completion endpoint by default; openai_api_base_url can point to another compatible API AI analysis.
• Tor, I2P, and proxy routing require a separately running gateway; Maigret does not manage those daemons. Cloudflare bypass via FlareSolverr is experimental proxies.
• The project is MIT-licensed and free for commercial use, though the README warns that site checks degrade over time and need ongoing maintenance. The author offers a private database and API separately commercial use.
• Intended for lawful, educational use; users are responsible for compliance with privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA.

HotRepo's take

Maigret drew substantial attention on Hacker News in October 2022, with nearly 500 points and close to 200 comments, and readers there debated the precision-recall tradeoff and the odd combination of detecting an account and then attributing interests like dating or a country code to the person behind it thread comment. One participant noted that Maigret is a fork of Sherlock that adds structured reports, while Sherlock primarily returns URLs comment comment. The repository has since grown to roughly 39.9k stars and 3.2k forks, with a Python-language daily snapshot in November 2026 recording about 49 new stars that day. The strongest practical caveat remains the false-positive issue raised in discussion: treat output as leads, not conclusions.