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::batch_v1::BatchServiceClient(
google::cloud::batch_v1::MakeBatchServiceConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThe latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and a range of stable versions are available, from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe client libraries use Application Default Credentials for authentication unless other configurations are applied.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override default credentials by using UnifiedCredentialsOption, such as loading a service account key file as shown in the example.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt is highly advised that you consult the guide on best practices for managing service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe linked "Authentication Components" section provides more information on creating google::cloud::Credentials objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]