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::kms_inventory_v1::KeyDashboardServiceClient(
google::cloud::kms_inventory_v1::MakeKeyDashboardServiceConnection(
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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 document provides information on how to override the default authentication credentials used by client libraries to interact with Google Cloud Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default authentication method is the Application Default Credentials, but this can be overridden using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is provided that demonstrates how to load a service account key file to authenticate.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples for other client classes like \u003ccode\u003ekms_inventory_v1::KeyDashboardServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003ekms_inventory_v1::KeyTrackingServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003ekms_v1::EkmServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003ekms_v1::KeyManagementServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e are available via links.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThere are multiple versions of the documentation, with 2.37.0-rc being the latest release candidate, and going as far back as version 2.10.1.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]