Shadowspotter documentation

Shadowspotter is a domain-intelligence platform: it indexes domains, DNS records, TLS certificates, WHOIS records and HTTP responses from across the public internet and exposes them through a fast, expressive search interface. You can save any query as a detection that runs in the background and triggers a notification (email, Slack, webhook, …) whenever a new match shows up.

Where to start

  • Query language — the syntax used in both the search bar and detections, the available entities, and every searchable field.
  • Detections — saving a query so it runs continuously and notifies you on new matches.
  • Notifications — what to do when a detection fires (email, Slack, custom webhook).
  • Profile — managing your account, avatar and API key.
  • Internet-wide scanning — what we scan, why, and how to identify or block our traffic.

Core concepts

ConceptDescription
EntityA category of records: domain, whois, dns, cert or http. Every query targets one or more entities.
QueryA ShadowLang expression that filters records, e.g. registrar:*NameCheap* creation_date:2024-01-01+.
DetectionA stored query that runs in the background and produces detection results when new matches appear.
NotificationAn automation triggered by a detection — an email, a Slack message or any other configured template.
TagA label attached to a domain. Tags can be queried using the tag field and are useful for grouping known assets or known-bad infrastructure.
SubscriptionYour plan. Determines which entities and fields you can query, the time range of historical data, and your detection / notification quotas.

Subscriptions at a glance

The Free plan lets you explore single-entity queries and create one detection. Paid plans (Researcher and Pro) unlock multi-entity queries, advanced fields (fuzzy_domain, lexical features), the HTTP entity and longer historical data windows. Enterprise adds API access and unlimited quotas. See pricing for the current breakdown.

These docs describe the live platform. If something here disagrees with what you see in the app, the app wins — please let us know at mail@shadowspotter.com.