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::datastream_v1::DatastreamClient(
google::cloud::datastream_v1::MakeDatastreamConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 version available is 2.37.0-rc, with numerous other versions from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0 also being accessible.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe client libraries typically use Application Default Credentials for authentication with Google Cloud Services, but there is an option to override this behavior if necessary.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override the default credentials by providing a UnifiedCredentialsOption, such as loading a service account key file explicitly, which is shown in the provided example code.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor detailed information on managing service account keys, it's recommended to consult the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Authentication Components page provides further information on factory functions for creating Credentials objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]