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::domains_v1::DomainsClient(
google::cloud::domains_v1::MakeDomainsConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 2.12.0, also accessible via their respective links.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default authentication method for client libraries is Application Default Credentials, but this can be overridden when required for certain applications.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can utilize the UnifiedCredentialsOption to override the default authentication, using a service account key file as a method to authenticate.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe example provided demonstrates loading a service account key file to manage the override, and the link to the best practices for managing service account keys is also provided.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor further details on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects, you can refer to the Authentication Components section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]