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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 preceding versions down to 2.11.0 also accessible.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy default, the client libraries use Application Default Credentials for authenticating with Google Cloud Services, but this can be overridden.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override default authentication by using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, such as loading a service account key file explicitly.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided example demonstrates overriding authentication credentials using a service account key file, which is an easy-to-understand method, but for best practices you can consult the provided guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eMore information on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects can be found in the Authentication Components section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
