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Local Transforms

Modified on: Tue, 8 Oct, 2024 at 8:17 AM

Local Transforms are pieces of code that run on the same machine on which the Maltego Desktop Client application is installed. Details on writing your own Transforms can be found in our Development section here. This article will only explain how local Transforms can be added to the Maltego Client.



Clicking the New Local Transform button will open the Local Transform Wizard. From here you will be greeted with the first screen of the wizard, this screen describes the Meta information as well as the Input Entity type and Transform set.


  • Meta Information - This is information describing the Transform including the Display name, Description, Transform ID and Author
  • Input Entity Type - This is the input Entity that this Transform will run on to return output.
  • Transform Set - You can populate this if you want to automatically add this Transform to a set.


An example of this screen populated is as follows:



The setup for Maltego is slightly more involved and you will be required to know the Command to execute, the Script name / Parameters and the Working Directory:

  • Command: This is the interpreter or compiled application, for example the command for Python might be c:\Python26\Python.exe or /usr/bin/python.
  • Script name / Parameters: If your executable takes parameters or if you are using an interpreted language such as Python you will set this field to one of these. For example, ours would be helloWorld.py if we are executing a Python script called helloWorld.py.
  • Working Directory: This is the directory where the local scripts are stored.


An example of the fields you will be required to populate are as follows:



Clicking Finish will complete the wizard and add your local Transform to the Maltego Client.


From here you can simply drag in the Entity you initially selected when adding the Transform (in this example it is an Alias). There will now be a Local Transform item in the top level of the Data Hub:



Clicking Local Transforms in the Context menu will show the local Transform/s that you've added to the Maltego Client:


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