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::deploy_v1::CloudDeployClient(
google::cloud::deploy_v1::MakeCloudDeployConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThis page documents different versions of the C++ library, with version 2.37.0-rc being the latest release candidate.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEach version listed links to documentation for overriding authentication credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default authentication method uses Application Default Credentials, but you can override this behavior using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example shows how to load a service account key file for explicit authentication using \u003ccode\u003eMakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor best practices and more details on authentication, users can refer to the provided links on service account keys and authentication components.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]