Awesome OSINT is not software: it is one long, curated README of open-source intelligence tools and resources, about 1,400 links in 75 sections, each with a one-line description. It runs from search engines (national, meta, privacy-focused, specialist and Google dork helpers) through social platform tools, domain and IP research, company research, image and video analysis, geospatial and mapping tools, maritime tracking, fact checking, web history and archiving, threat intelligence and live cyber threat maps, to OSINT blogs, videos and RSS feeds.
It is one of the oldest and best-known lists in the field. It started in 2016, partly based on i-intelligence's OSINT Tools and Resources Handbook, is maintained by jivoi and spmedia, and has about 30,500 stars and 335 contributors. It is still edited every week (the last push was 26 October 2026), and the text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, so you can reuse and adapt it with credit under the same licence.
A list is only as good as its entries, and these are third-party sites the maintainers link to, not tools they have reviewed. Some sections, such as username checks, people investigations, email and phone research and data breach search, cover personal data; treat those as tools for checking your own exposure and for authorised, lawful work, not for looking up private people.
- Repository: github.com/jivoi/awesome-osint
- Licence: custom (Other)
- Language: mixed. Stars: 30.5K. Forks: 4,231. Last push: Oct 26, 2026.
- Scan: safe, Oct 28, 2026, commit 8036ea3
Who it is for
Journalists and fact-checkers, security and threat intelligence analysts, researchers and students learning OSINT, and anyone auditing what is publicly visible about their own organisation or accounts.
Getting started
1. Read it on GitHub and jump to a section from the table of contents
open https://github.com/jivoi/awesome-osint2. Or keep an offline copy you can search
git clone https://github.com/jivoi/awesome-osint.git && cd awesome-osint3. Find every entry about a topic
grep -i "geolocation" README.mdNothing to install or run. Each link leads to an independent site or repository with its own owner, terms and privacy policy, so vet a tool before you give it data, and scan any linked GitHub project before installing it.
Safety scan
We cloned jivoi/awesome-osint at commit 8036ea3 on Oct 28, 2026 and ran the checks described on the GitHub Tools page: credential patterns, decode-and-execute code, install-time scripts, committed binaries, risky CI workflows, every host the code talks to, known vulnerabilities in pinned dependencies, and project hygiene. A person read every hit. This is what we found.
- The repository is five files: the README, a contributing guide, the licence, a one-line GitHub Pages theme setting and a logo. There is no code, so there are no secrets, pattern hits, install hooks, binaries or dependencies to report.
- No GitHub Actions workflows, so nothing runs on pull requests. OpenSSF Scorecard rates it 3.9 out of 10, which mostly reflects checks written for software (branch protection, code review, SAST, fuzzing) rather than a problem with a link list.
- No security policy or code of conduct, which matters little here. Licence (CC BY-SA 4.0) and contributing guide present, and the maintainers respond: the repository has no open issues and one open pull request.
- What the scan cannot check is the 1,400 destinations. We did not review them; some are commercial services, a few sections list breach and people-search sites that handle leaked or personal data, and links to GitHub projects lead to code nobody here has scanned.
What the scanner counted
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Secrets | None found. |
| Suspicious code | None found. |
| Install-time code | None: nothing runs at install beyond the package manager itself. |
| Committed binaries | None. |
| CI workflows | No GitHub Actions workflows. |
| Network hosts | 0 distinct hosts referenced from source. No URLs to bare IP addresses. |
| Known vulnerabilities | No lockfile to check: dependencies are declared as ranges, so what gets installed is whatever is current on the day. |
| Project hygiene | Has licence file, contributing guide. Missing security policy, automated dependency updates, CodeQL. |
| OpenSSF Scorecard | 3.9 out of 10, as of Oct 19, 2026. |
By the numbers
| Stars | 30.5K |
|---|---|
| Forks | 4,231 |
| Contributors | 335 |
| Commits | 1,548 |
| Open issues | 0 |
| Open pull requests | 1 |
| Releases | 7 |
| Latest release | v1.0.7 |
| Licence | custom |
| Main language | mixed |
| Project age | 9 years |
| Last push | Oct 26, 2026 |
| Tracked files | 5 |
| Lines of code | 1,768 |
| Checkout size | 220 KB |
Lines by language: Markdown 1,767, YAML 1.
Questions
Is Awesome OSINT free?
Yes. The list is free to read, clone and reuse under CC BY-SA 4.0, which asks for credit and for adaptations to carry the same licence. The tools it links to are a mix: many are free websites or open-source projects, and others are commercial services with free tiers or paid plans.
Is it legal to use the tools in Awesome OSINT?
Looking at public information is generally legal, but how you use it is what counts. Laws on privacy, data protection, stalking and computer misuse still apply, as do each site's terms. Use people, email, phone and breach search tools only on yourself, your own organisation, or with clear authorisation, and do not use them to track private individuals.
Where should a beginner start in Awesome OSINT?
Start with General Search and Speciality Search Engines, then Image Search and Image Analysis for verifying photos, Geospatial Research and Mapping Tools for locating places, and Web History and Website Capture for seeing how a page has changed. The OSINT Blogs and OSINT Videos sections near the end point to tutorials and case studies.
This post is part of GitHub Tools, where every repository is cloned and scanned before it is written up. The scan is a snapshot of one commit on one day; the repository has moved on since, so check it before you install.