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::composer_v1::EnvironmentsClient(
google::cloud::composer_v1::MakeEnvironmentsConnection(options));
}
Follow these links to find examples for other *Client classes:
[[["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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 other versions available are from 2.11.0 up to 2.36.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default authentication with Google Cloud Services is via Application Default Credentials, but this can be overridden.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eOverriding authentication is possible by providing the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, with an example shown using a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples for other client classes like \u003ccode\u003ecomposer_v1::EnvironmentsClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003ecomposer_v1::ImageVersionsClient\u003c/code\u003e are available via provided links.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eService account key file management best practices should be consulted for more in-depth details.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]