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Getting started, and questions

Everything you need once it's installed: how to bring your network in, where it lives, and what the app does and doesn't do.

Get started

Bring your network in

The app opens on three ways in, from no risk at all to the full picture. Scanning is the only one that shows who your connections know.

No LinkedIn risk

Explore a sample

150 invented connections and the 598 people they know. Every view except Outlink and Scan, which need your own network.

No LinkedIn risk

Import LinkedIn's export

LinkedIn's own Connections.csv, read on your computer: Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → Get a copy of your data → Connections. It shows the people you know, not who they know: Insights ranks them, but Degrees, Separation and Outlink need a scan.

Your account, your risk

Scan your LinkedIn

The only way to see who your connections know. The app opens Google Chrome with a profile of its own, you sign into LinkedIn there yourself, and it reads slowly with daily limits, in the background: its window comes forward only if LinkedIn needs you.

Importing LinkedIn's export (half a minute): ask LinkedIn for your Connections file, then drop it on the app. No sign-in, and no risk to your account.

Scanning uses your own LinkedIn account, and LinkedIn may restrict accounts that automate it. Automating LinkedIn may break its User Agreement. The scanner reads slowly, keeps to a budget and stops at the first push-back, but the risk is yours. The sample and the CSV import carry no LinkedIn risk at all. How scanning works.

How scanning works (under a minute): sign into LinkedIn in the Chrome window it opens, scan the people you know, then map who they know a few at a time.

Your data

One folder, on your computer

Your network lives in a hidden folder in your home folder, .six-degrees. Open it any time with Help → Show the Data Folder, and see what each part takes up in Settings → Your data.

  • Backups. Sixgree backs up your network, photos and all, into backups/ once a day while it's open, before each new version first opens it, and before an import or a restore. Each one is checked as it's made. Settings → Your data shows the last one and puts any of them back with Restore.
  • Moving to a new computer. Settings → Your data → Export backup file… makes one file. Move it yourself, and restore it on the other computer. Your LinkedIn sign-in never goes into it.
  • The one thing to guard. chrome-profile/ holds the scanner's signed-in LinkedIn session. Never copy, sync or share it; deleting it just means signing in again.

Every detail, including how to undo an import, is in the README.

Privacy

What it contacts, and when

This website has no trackers either. To show the latest version and the number of stars, it asks GitHub.

Questions

Questions people ask

Is Sixgree free?
Yes. It's free and open source under the MIT licence, with no account, no subscription and no paid tier. Every line of code is on GitHub.
Does it upload my LinkedIn data anywhere?
No. Your network stays on your Mac, in a hidden .six-degrees folder. There's no telemetry, no analytics and no crash reports. It only goes online when you act: LinkedIn while you scan or press Auto, and GitHub when you check for an update.
Does it work on Windows?
Yes, in beta: a one-click Setup.exe for Windows 10 or 11, the same app as on the Mac with the scanner's Python inside (how). There's a Linux app too (.deb or .tar.gz), and on Linux it still runs with npx sixgree as well.
Is the Mac app signed?
Yes. Signed by Blake Burford and notarized by Apple: it opens like any Mac app. If macOS says it can't check the app for malware, that's a copy of 0.8.0 or earlier, from before it was signed: download the newest one, or allow that copy once in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
Is scanning LinkedIn against LinkedIn's rules?
Automating LinkedIn may break its User Agreement, and LinkedIn can restrict an account for it. Scanning is optional, slow on purpose, kept to a daily budget, and stops at the first push-back. The sample network and LinkedIn's own CSV export carry no risk to your account.
Why did macOS ask about App Management while scanning?
That's Google Chrome updating itself. The scanner starts Chrome, Chrome's own updater then tries to update the Chrome app, and macOS asks whether Sixgree, which started Chrome, can manage apps. Either answer is fine: scanning works the same, and if you say no, Chrome updates itself the next time you open it. To stop the question, allow Sixgree once in System Settings → Privacy & Security → App Management (the Scan page's first step has a button that opens it).
What do I need to get started?
A Mac (or Windows or Linux, in beta) and, optionally, LinkedIn's Connections.csv export (Settings → Data privacy → Get a copy of your data). Or nothing: a sample network of 150 invented people ships with the app, so you can explore every view before importing anything.
What does “six degrees” mean here?
The idea that anyone is reachable through a short chain of people who know each other. The app draws your chain: who you know, who they know, and the shortest introduction path from you to someone you haven't met.
How is someone's score worked out?
From their title and their company: power = title × (0.45 + 0.055 × company score), plus a small bonus for reach and for a strong circle. It estimates network position, not what anyone is worth as a person. Scanned and sample people show the working on their card.

Go deeper

The full documentation