Unless otherwise configured, the client libraries use Application Default Credentials to authenticate with Google Cloud Services. While this works for most applications, in some cases you may need to override this default. You can do so by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file:
[](std::string const& keyfile) {
auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);
is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples
auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(is.rdbuf()), {});
auto options =
google::cloud::Options{}.set<google::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption>(
google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));
return google::cloud::apikeys_v2::ApiKeysClient(
google::cloud::apikeys_v2::MakeApiKeysConnection(options));
}
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-04-02 UTC."],[[["This page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud client libraries, with version-specific references."],["The latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and the documentation lists all versions from 2.11.0 up to this one, each with a link to its corresponding API key authentication override details."],["By default, the client libraries use Application Default Credentials (ADC), but this can be overridden via `UnifiedCredentialsOption`."],["An example is shown on how to explicitly load a service account key file, using `MakeServiceAccountCredentials` which is considered a simple method, but its recommended to consult best practices."],["The page provides a `See Also` link, directing users to a page for more information on `Authentication Components` and how to create `google::cloud::Credentials` objects."]]],[]]