How to Display Only Used Accounts with Holehe CLI

Use the --only-used flag when running Holehe from the command line to filter results and display only services where the email address is registered, hiding unused sites, rate limits, and errors.

When investigating email addresses across social media platforms and online services, the open-source OSINT tool Holehe generates verbose output that includes every site checked. To streamline reconnaissance and display only used accounts, Holehe provides a built-in CLI filter that hides negative results and shows only confirmed registrations.

Using the --only-used Flag

The simplest way to display only used accounts is appending the --only-used flag to your command. This argument is parsed in holehe/core.py at lines 84-86, where it sets the onlyused attribute in the CLI arguments object.

When enabled, Holehe suppresses entries marked as unused, rate-limited, or error states, showing only lines prefixed with [+] that indicate a confirmed account exists.

# Default scan - shows all results including unused sites and errors

holehe test@example.com

# Filtered scan - display only used accounts

holehe test@example.com --only-used

How the Filtering Works in the Source Code

According to the megadose/holehe source code, the filtering logic resides in the print_result function within holehe/core.py (lines 22-30). This function iterates through the results and checks the boolean value of results["exists"].

Only entries where results["exists"] == True are rendered to the terminal. This corresponds to the [+] status indicator shown in the final output, representing services where the target email is actively registered.

The flag essentially bypasses printing for:

• Sites where the email is not found
• Rate-limited connections
• Module execution errors

Replicating the Filter in Python Code

When using Holehe as a library rather than a CLI tool, you can replicate the "only used" behavior by configuring the arguments object passed to get_functions and print_result. Set the onlyused attribute to True to maintain parity with the command-line flag.

# Using Holehe as a library – replicate the “only used” behavior

import asyncio, httpx, trio
from holehe.core import import_submodules, get_functions, launch_module, print_result

async def run(email):
    modules = import_submodules("holehe.modules")
    websites = get_functions(modules, args=type('args',(object,),{'onlyused':True,'nocolor':False,'noclear':True,'nopasswordrecovery':False,'csvoutput':False}))
    client = httpx.AsyncClient()
    out = []
    async with trio.open_nursery() as nursery:
        for website in websites:
            nursery.start_soon(launch_module, website, email, client, out)
    await client.aclose()
    print_result(out, type('args',(object,),{'onlyused':True,'nocolor':False,'noclear':True}), email, 0, websites)

asyncio.run(run("test@example.com"))

Summary

• Append --only-used to your Holehe command to display only used accounts and suppress negative results.
• The filtering logic is implemented in holehe/core.py inside the print_result function (lines 22-30).
• Only entries with results["exists"] == True are displayed, corresponding to the [+] status indicator.
• When using Holehe as a Python library, set onlyused=True in the arguments object to achieve identical filtering behavior.
• Key files involved include holehe/core.py for CLI parsing and result printing, and holehe/modules/ for individual service implementations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the --only-used flag hide rate-limited services?

Yes. When you use the --only-used flag, Holehe filters out all results except confirmed accounts. This includes hiding services that returned rate-limit errors, connection failures, or "not used" status messages, displaying only sites where results["exists"] evaluates to True.

Can I export only used accounts to CSV using Holehe?

The CSV export functionality in Holehe respects the same filtering logic. When you enable both --only-used and --csv flags, the output file will contain only the services where accounts exist, as the filtering occurs before the export operation in holehe/core.py.

Is the --only-used flag available in all versions of Holehe?

The --only-used parameter is defined in the argument parser at lines 84-86 of holehe/core.py in the current master branch. Ensure you are using a recent version of the tool cloned from the official megadose/holehe repository to access this functionality.

How does Holehe determine if an account exists?

Individual modules in holehe/modules/ check registration status via API calls or web scraping. Each module returns a dictionary with an "exists" key set to True or False. The print_result function in holehe/core.py then checks this value to determine whether to display the result when --only-used is active.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instagit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "instagit@latest"]
    }
  }
}