clearfront

Clearfront

Open-source AI intelligence on your digital footprint.

Clearfront, also known as Clearfront OSINT, is a free and open-source OSINT agent. Give it an email, username, domain, IP, or name, and its AI security analyst scans 3,400+ public data sources in one sweep, then returns a calibrated report and an interactive evidence graph. Check your own exposure, or investigate an authorized target. It runs locally with your own API keys and sends nothing to us.

Interactive REPL · CLI · local web console · MCP server · agent skill. Powered by Anthropic Claude, a local Ollama model, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

clearfront.sh · Disclaimer

• 30 modular tools, email, username (sherlock + WhatsMyName), broad username discovery across 3,400+ sites (maigret), search-based footprint discovery, IP, IP self-exposure report, domain, WHOIS, breach, Gravatar profile, EmailRep reputation, phone, paste, EXIF/GPS metadata, Shodan, VirusTotal, Censys, IP2Location, AbuseIPDB, GitHub (profile + public code/secret exposure), DNS, subdomain discovery via certificate transparency (crt.sh), historical URL recovery via the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive), mass-scan visibility (GreyNoise Community), infostealer-exposure check (Hudson Rock, free tier, no plaintext credentials), dork generation, live dork search, URL scraping, BTC/ETH address lookup, and passive domain recon (theHarvester)
• MCP server built in, expose all 30 tools natively to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and any MCP-compatible client
• Three AI backends, Anthropic Claude (default), local Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint; tool results come from real subprocess calls, never hallucinated
• Fully async, parallel tool execution via asyncio.gather() with hard subprocess timeouts
• MIT licensed, no embedded LLM; bring your own API key or run fully offline

Legal Disclaimer: Clearfront is intended for legal and authorized use only. Users are solely responsible for ensuring their use complies with all applicable laws and regulations. The authors accept no liability for misuse. See DISCLAIMER.md.

What is Clearfront?

Clearfront is an AI agent for Open Source Intelligence with five interfaces: an interactive terminal REPL, a direct CLI, a browser-based web console, an MCP server exposable to Claude Code, Claude Desktop or any MCP-compatible client, and an agent skill for any client following the Agent Skills standard. The AI layer uses Anthropic's native tool use API (or a local Ollama model, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint): the model issues hard stops when it needs a tool, your code executes the real binary, the actual output goes back, hallucination in tool results is structurally impossible.

Installation

pip install clearfront

Or from source, if you want to modify it:

git clone https://github.com/scottmartinanderson/clearfront
cd clearfront
pip install -e .

External binaries (must be in PATH):

Binary	Purpose	Install
holehe	Email account enumeration	pip install holehe
sherlock	Username enumeration (300+ platforms)	pip install sherlock-project
sublist3r	Subdomain enumeration	pip install sublist3r
phoneinfoga	Phone number intelligence	Download binary
theHarvester	Passive domain recon (emails/subdomains)	pip install git+https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester.git

If a binary is absent, the corresponding tool returns a descriptive error string. All other tools remain operational.

Quick Start

# Interactive AI REPL (default)
clearfront

# Web interface
clearfront web

# Direct tool (no AI)
clearfront email [e-mail]

Configuration

Store all keys in a .env file at the project root (copy .env.example). python-dotenv loads it automatically at startup.

Variable	Tool	Required	Purpose
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	AI agent	Yes (or use Ollama / OpenAI)	Anthropic API key
OPENAI_BASE_URL	AI agent	Optional	Base URL of an OpenAI-compatible endpoint (e.g. http://localhost:4000/v1). When set and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is absent, it is used as the AI backend (takes precedence over Ollama). The model must support tool/function calling.
OPENAI_API_KEY	AI agent	Optional	API key for the OpenAI-compatible endpoint (local servers may ignore it)
OPENAI_MODEL	AI agent	Optional	Model name to request from the endpoint (default: gpt-4o-mini)
HIBP_API_KEY	search_breach	Optional	HaveIBeenPwned v3, get one
IPINFO_TOKEN	search_ip	Optional	ipinfo.io higher rate limits
SHODAN_API_KEY	search_shodan	Optional	Shodan API, get one
VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY	search_virustotal	Optional	VirusTotal API v3, get one
IP2LOCATION_API_KEY	search_ip2location	Optional	IP2Location.io enhanced IP intelligence, get one
CENSYS_PAT + CENSYS_ORG_ID	search_censys	Optional	Censys Platform API: Personal Access Token + Organization ID, get one
ABUSEIPDB_API_KEY	search_abuseipdb	Optional	AbuseIPDB v2, get one
GITHUB_TOKEN	search_github	Optional	GitHub API, raises rate limit from 60 to 5000 req/h, get one
SERPER_API_KEY	search_dorks_live, search_footprint	Optional	Serper.dev Google SERP API, the preferred SERP backend (~$1/1k, 2,500 free), get one.
BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY	search_dorks_live, scrape_url	Optional	Bright Data API key, get one (free tier: 5,000 req/month).
BRIGHTDATA_SERP_ZONE	search_dorks_live	Optional	Your Bright Data SERP API zone name (e.g. serp_api1).
BRIGHTDATA_UNLOCKER_ZONE	scrape_url	Optional	Your Bright Data Web Unlocker zone name (e.g. web_unlocker1).

The Bright Data link above is a referral link; signing up through it supports Clearfront at no extra cost to you.

Optional Python packages:

Package	Purpose	Install
ollama	Local LLM backend (no API key)	pip install ollama (also install the Ollama runtime)
openai	OpenAI-compatible backend for the REPL/CLI (--provider openai)	pip install "clearfront[openai]"
shodan	Shodan API client	pip install shodan
reportlab	PDF report export	pip install reportlab
censys	Censys API client	pip install censys

Tools

Tool	Powered by	What it investigates
search_email	holehe	Social accounts linked to an email address
search_username	sherlock	Username presence across 300+ platforms
search_breach	HaveIBeenPwned v3 API	Data breach exposure
search_whois	python-whois	Domain registrant and DNS info
search_ip	ipinfo.io	Geolocation, ASN, hostname
search_domain	sublist3r	Subdomain enumeration
search_crt	crt.sh	Subdomains from certificate transparency (keyless, passive)
search_wayback	Internet Archive	Historical/deleted URLs archived under a domain (keyless, passive)
search_greynoise	GreyNoise Community	Mass-scanner noise vs. targeted actor for an IP (free, 50/week)
generate_dorks	built-in	12 targeted Google dork URLs (no network calls)
search_paste	psbdmp.ws	Pastebin dump mentions
search_phone	phoneinfoga	Carrier, country, line type
search_shodan	Shodan API	Open ports, banners, CVEs
search_virustotal	VirusTotal API v3	Verdict from 70+ antivirus engines
search_ip2location	IP2Location.io API	Enhanced IP intel: VPN/Proxy/Tor/datacenter flags
search_censys	Censys Search API	Internet-facing infrastructure, certificates
search_abuseipdb	AbuseIPDB v2 API	IP abuse reputation: confidence score, reports, country, ISP
search_github	GitHub REST API	Profile, repos, commit-discovered emails, username/keyword search
search_dns	dnspython (built-in)	A/AAAA/MX/NS/TXT/CNAME/SOA records; SPF, DMARC, DKIM analysis
search_dorks_live	Bright Data SERP API	Live Google search results for dork queries (title, URL, snippet)
scrape_url	Bright Data Web Unlocker	Fetch any URL bypassing Cloudflare/CAPTCHA, returns clean Markdown
search_maigret	maigret	Username presence across 3,400+ sites
search_footprint	SERP (Serper / Bright Data / DuckDuckGo)	Search-based footprint discovery for a name or handle
search_gravatar	Gravatar API	Public Gravatar profile for an email: avatar, display name, linked accounts
search_emailrep	EmailRep.io	Email reputation and footprint summary
search_hudsonrock	Hudson Rock Cavalier (free)	Infostealer-exposure check for an email or username (no plaintext credentials)
search_exif	exiftool	EXIF / IPTC / XMP metadata and embedded GPS from a local file
search_crypto	public chain APIs	Bitcoin / Ethereum address summary: balance, transaction count
search_harvester	theHarvester	Passive domain recon: emails, subdomains, hosts
search_exposure	built-in (composite)	Self-exposure report for an IP across the infrastructure tools

Interfaces

Interactive REPL

Run clearfront with no arguments to start the AI-powered REPL. Type a target (email, username, domain, IP, name) or a question; the agent decides which tools to run, chains them on findings, and compiles a report.

REPL commands: <target>, clear, save, tools, config, history, help, exit / Ctrl-D.

All sessions are auto-saved to ~/.clearfront/history/. Browse with clearfront history.

Web UI

pip install "clearfront[web]"
clearfront web
# Opens http://localhost:8080 automatically

Browser-based AI chat with streaming tool output, inline result cards, and a light/dark theme toggle. Supports fully local inference via Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (no Anthropic API key required when using a local backend).

The console runs entirely locally and binds to 127.0.0.1 by default. Choose your backend and paste your own key in Settings; your keys and the targets you investigate never touch our servers. Screenshots are in media/.

MCP Server

Expose all 30 tools to any MCP-compatible AI client.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add clearfront python /absolute/path/to/clearfront/mcp_server.py
claude mcp list

Claude Desktop, add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clearfront": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/clearfront/mcp_server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Agent Skill

skills/clearfront-osint teaches an agent how to drive Clearfront: which approach fits a given request, the direct subcommands, how to read the confidence ratings, and the authorized-use rules. It follows the Agent Skills open standard, so it works in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, VS Code, Gemini, Windsurf, Zed and the other skills-compatible clients.

npx skills add scottmartinanderson/clearfront

Install Clearfront itself as well (pip install clearfront); the skill is the instructions, not the tool. Use the skill when you want the agent to decide how to run a sweep, and the MCP server above when you want it calling the 30 tools directly.

Docker

docker compose up --build
docker compose run --rm clearfront email [e-mail] --json

Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (and optionally HIBP_API_KEY, IPINFO_TOKEN) in a .env file or export them before running. Reports persist to ./reports/ via a volume mount.

CLI Reference

Flag / Subcommand	Description
clearfront	Interactive AI REPL (default)
clearfront web [--port N] [--no-browser]	Launch browser UI
clearfront email ADDRESS [-t N]	Direct email scan
clearfront username HANDLE [-t N]	Direct username scan
clearfront shodan QUERY [-t N]	Shodan lookup
clearfront virustotal TARGET [-t N]	VirusTotal lookup
clearfront censys TARGET [-t N]	Censys lookup
clearfront ip2location IP [-t N]	IP2Location lookup
clearfront abuseipdb IP [-t N]	AbuseIPDB reputation check
clearfront github QUERY [-t N]	GitHub profile/repo/email discovery
clearfront dns DOMAIN [-t N]	DNS records + email security analysis
clearfront multi TARGETS	Parallel multi-target investigation (max 10)
clearfront graph TARGET [-o PATH] [--format graphml|json|mermaid|all]	Auto-pivot and export the entity correlation graph (GraphML/JSON/Mermaid)
clearfront history [--all] [open N] [clear]	View/manage REPL session history
-v, --verbose	Enable debug logging to stderr
-t, --timeout N	Override subprocess timeout (seconds)
--api-key KEY	Anthropic API key (overrides env var)
--parallel	Run complementary tools concurrently
--json	Output results as structured JSON
-o, --output FILE	Write results to FILE instead of stdout (raw; combine with --json for a JSON file)
--provider {anthropic,ollama,openai}	AI provider (default: anthropic)
--ollama-model MODEL	Ollama model name (default: llama3.2)
--ollama-host URL	Ollama server URL (default: http://localhost:11434)
--openai-base-url URL	OpenAI-compatible endpoint base URL (env: OPENAI_BASE_URL)
--openai-model MODEL	Model to request from the endpoint (env: OPENAI_MODEL)
--openai-api-key KEY	API key for the endpoint (env: OPENAI_API_KEY)
--no-pdf	Disable automatic PDF generation

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development workflow and coding conventions. Please read DISCLAIMER.md before contributing.

License

Clearfront is open source under the MIT License.

The bundled username dataset clearfront/tools/data/wmn-data-unique.json is a filtered adaptation of the WhatsMyName project by Micah Hoffman, used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; that file (and adaptations of it) remains under CC BY-SA 4.0. See clearfront/tools/data/NOTICE.

For authorized security research only. See DISCLAIMER.md.