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::discoveryengine_v1::CompletionServiceClient(
google::cloud::discoveryengine_v1::MakeCompletionServiceConnection(
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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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."],[[["This page documents how to override the default authentication credentials for Google Cloud services using the `UnifiedCredentialsOption`."],["The latest release is version 2.37.0-rc, and the content also covers previous versions, ranging back to version 2.15.1."],["The provided example demonstrates explicitly loading a service account key file to override the default credentials, and is relatively easy to understand."],["Examples are available for multiple `*Client` classes, including `CompletionServiceClient`, `ConversationalSearchServiceClient`, `DocumentServiceClient`, `SchemaServiceClient`, `SearchServiceClient`, and `UserEventServiceClient`, all under version 2.21.0."],["The page links to further information on [Best practices for managing service account keys](https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/best-practices-for-managing-service-account-keys) and [Authentication Components](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/group__guac.html)."]]],[]]