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::datafusion_v1::DataFusionClient(
google::cloud::datafusion_v1::MakeDataFusionConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 webpage provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when interacting with Google Cloud Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and the list includes versions ranging from 2.37.0-rc down to 2.13.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default authentication uses Application Default Credentials, but you can override them using the UnifiedCredentialsOption.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is given of how to explicitly load a service account key file using \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can find more details on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects in the Authentication Components section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]