social-links 1.2.1

A lightweight, zero-dependency Python library for detecting, validating, and sanitizing social media profile URLs. Supports 50+ platforms out of the box with automatic URL normalization, username extraction, and customizable regex patterns for extensibility.

Social Links

A lightweight, zero-dependency Python library for detecting, validating, and sanitizing social media profile URLs. Supports 50+ platforms out of the box with automatic URL normalization, username extraction, and customizable regex patterns for extensibility.

🚀 Try it interactively in your browser! Test the library with our Interactive Demo - no installation required.

Features

• 🔍 Auto-detect social media platforms from URLs
• ✅ Validate URLs against specific platforms
• 🧹 Sanitize URLs to canonical format
• 🎯 50+ predefined platforms (LinkedIn, GitHub, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more)
• 🔧 Customizable - Add your own platforms with regex patterns
• 🚀 Zero dependencies - Pure Python, no external libraries

Installation

pip install social-links

Or using uv:

uv pip install social-links

Quick Start

from sociallinks import SocialLinks

# Initialize with predefined platforms
sl = SocialLinks()

# Detect platform from URL
platform = sl.detect_platform("https://www.linkedin.com/in/ysskrishna/")
print(platform)  # "linkedin"

# Validate URL for a specific platform
is_valid = sl.is_valid("linkedin", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ysskrishna/")
print(is_valid)  # True

# Sanitize URL to canonical format
sanitized = sl.sanitize("linkedin", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ysskrishna/")
print(sanitized)  # "https://linkedin.com/in/ysskrishna"

Supported Platforms

The library comes with 50+ predefined platforms:

Predefined Platforms
Apple Music	Bandcamp	Behance
Bluesky	Crunchbase	Dev.to
Discord	Douyin	Dribbble
Etsy	Exercism	Facebook
Flickr	GitHub	GitLab
Gravatar	Gumroad	Hacker News
Hashnode	Instagram	Keybase
Kuaishou	Lemmy World	LinkedIn (personal & company)
Linktree	Mastodon	Medium
Patreon	Pinterest	Product Hunt
Quora	Reddit	Signal
SlideShare	Snapchat	SoundCloud
Spotify	Stack Overflow	Steam
Substack	Telegram	Threads
TikTok	Tumblr	Twitch
Vimeo	VK	WeChat
Weibo	Wellfound (AngelList)	WhatsApp
X (Twitter)	YouTube

Usage Examples

Detect Platform

sl = SocialLinks()

# Detect from full URL
sl.detect_platform("https://github.com/ysskrishna")  # "github"
sl.detect_platform("https://x.com/ysskrishna")      # "x"
sl.detect_platform("https://example.com")         # None

# Works with various URL formats
sl.detect_platform("http://linkedin.com/in/ysskrishna")
sl.detect_platform("www.facebook.com/ysskrishna")
sl.detect_platform("  https://instagram.com/ysskrishna  ")  # Handles whitespace

Validate URLs

sl = SocialLinks()

# Validate against specific platform
sl.is_valid("linkedin", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ysskrishna/")  # True
sl.is_valid("linkedin", "https://example.com")                   # False
sl.is_valid("github", "https://github.com/ysskrishna")             # True

Sanitize URLs

sl = SocialLinks()

# Normalize to canonical format
sl.sanitize("linkedin", "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ysskrishna/")
# Returns: "https://linkedin.com/in/ysskrishna"

sl.sanitize("github", "http://www.github.com/ysskrishna")
# Returns: "https://github.com/ysskrishna"

sl.sanitize("x", "https://twitter.com/ysskrishna")
# Returns: "https://x.com/ysskrishna"

Custom Platforms

sl = SocialLinks(use_predefined_platforms=False)

# Add a custom platform
custom_platform = [{
    "patterns": [
        r"https?://(www\.)?example\.com/(?P<id>[A-Za-z0-9_]+)/?$",
        r"^(?P<id>[A-Za-z0-9_]+)$"  # Username-only pattern
    ],
    "sanitized": "https://example.com/{id}"
}]

sl.set_platform("example", custom_platform)

# Now you can use it
sl.detect_platform("https://example.com/user123")  # "example"
sl.sanitize("example", "https://example.com/user123")  # "https://example.com/user123"

Platform Management

sl = SocialLinks()

# List all platforms
platforms = sl.list_platforms()
# Returns: ["behance", "dev_to", "dribbble", ...]

# Get platform configuration
config = sl.get_platform("github")

# Add multiple platforms
new_platforms = {
    "platform1": [{
        "patterns": [r"https?://example1.com/(?P<id>\w+)"],
        "sanitized": "https://example1.com/{id}"
    }],
    "platform2": [{
        "patterns": [r"https?://example2.com/(?P<id>\w+)"],
        "sanitized": "https://example2.com/{id}"
    }]
}
sl.set_platforms(new_platforms, override=False)

# Delete platforms
sl.delete_platform("custom_platform")
sl.delete_platforms(["platform1", "platform2"])

# Clear all platforms
sl.clear_platforms()

Custom Regex Flags

import re
from sociallinks import SocialLinks

# Use custom regex flags
sl = SocialLinks(regex_flags=re.IGNORECASE | re.MULTILINE)

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a detailed list of changes and version history.

Roadmap

The following improvements are planned for upcoming releases:

• Add method to configure custom sanitization patterns
• Create Streamlit demo application
• Integrate development tools (flake8, black, isort) for code quality
• Add code coverage reporting with pytest-cov
• Refactor platform entries using dataclasses for better structure
• Consider functional API alternative to SocialLinks class for simpler usage

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details on our code of conduct, development setup, and the process for submitting pull requests.

Support

If you find this library useful, please consider:

• ⭐ Starring the repository on GitHub to help others discover it.

• 💖 Sponsoring to support ongoing maintenance and development.

Become a Sponsor on GitHub | Support on Patreon

Links

• Documentation: ysskrishna.github.io/social-links

• Interactive Demo: ysskrishna.github.io/social-links/demo/

• PyPI: pypi.org/project/social-links

• Homepage: github.com/ysskrishna/social-links

• Repository: github.com/ysskrishna/social-links.git

• Issues: github.com/ysskrishna/social-links/issues

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Author

Y. Siva Sai Krishna

• GitHub: @ysskrishna

• LinkedIn: ysskrishna