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::gkemulticloud_v1::AttachedClustersClient(
google::cloud::gkemulticloud_v1::MakeAttachedClustersConnection(
"us-west1" /* regional service region */, 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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud client libraries, specifically focusing on GKE Multi-Cloud services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, with multiple previous versions ranging from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0 accessible via provided links.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAuthentication can be overridden using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, as demonstrated by an example showing how to load a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples for overriding credentials are provided for \u003ccode\u003eAttachedClustersClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003eAwsClustersClient\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003eAzureClustersClient\u003c/code\u003e within the GKE Multi-Cloud v1 API.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor more details on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects, refer to the linked "Authentication Components" documentation, and for service account key management, consult the "Best practices" guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.36.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/latest/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.41.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.40.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.39.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.38.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.37.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.36.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.35.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.34.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.33.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.32.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.31.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.30.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.29.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.28.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.27.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.26.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.25.1/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.24.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.23.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.22.1/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.21.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.20.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.19.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.18.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.17.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.16.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.15.1/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.14.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.13.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.12.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.11.0/gkemulticloud-override-authentication) \n\nHow to Override the Authentication Credentials\n==============================================\n\nUnless otherwise configured, the client libraries use [Application Default Credentials](https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#adc) 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](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/structgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1UnifiedCredentialsOption.html) The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file: \n\n [](std::string const& keyfile) {\n auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);\n is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples\n auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator\u003cchar\u003e(is.rdbuf()), {});\n auto options =\n google::cloud::Options{}.set\u003cgoogle::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption\u003e(\n google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));\n return google::cloud::gkemulticloud_v1::AttachedClustersClient(\n google::cloud::gkemulticloud_v1::MakeAttachedClustersConnection(\n \"us-west1\" /* regional service region */, options));\n }\n\nFollow these links to find examples for other `*Client` classes:\n\n- [`gkemulticloud_v1::AttachedClustersClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.36.0/gkemulticloud_v1_1_1AttachedClustersClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`gkemulticloud_v1::AwsClustersClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.36.0/gkemulticloud_v1_1_1AwsClustersClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`gkemulticloud_v1::AzureClustersClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/gkemulticloud/2.36.0/gkemulticloud_v1_1_1AzureClustersClient-service-account-snippet)\n\nKeep in mind that we chose this as an example because it is relatively easy to understand. Consult the [Best practices for managing service account keys](https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/best-practices-for-managing-service-account-keys) guide for more details.\n\n###### See Also\n\n[Authentication Components](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/group__guac.html) - for more information on the factory functions to create [`google::cloud::Credentials`](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1Credentials.html) objects."]]