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::edgecontainer_v1::EdgeContainerClient(
google::cloud::edgecontainer_v1::MakeEdgeContainerConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 available dating back to 2.11.0.\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 as demonstrated in the provided example.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor details on the creation of \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects, consult the Authentication Components section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe proper way to handle service account keys is available in the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]