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::baremetalsolution_v2::BareMetalSolutionClient(
google::cloud::baremetalsolution_v2::MakeBareMetalSolutionConnection(
options));
}
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud client libraries, specifically within the context of the Bare Metal Solution.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, and a range of previous versions, from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0, are also documented here.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy default, the client libraries will use Application Default Credentials, but this can be overridden via \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is shown on how to explicitly load a service account key file for overriding the default authentication.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor more details on managing service account keys, refer to the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide and check out the "Authentication Components" section for factory functions to create \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
