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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-02 UTC."],[[["This document details how to override the default Application Default Credentials (ADC) used by Google Cloud client libraries for authentication."],["The `UnifiedCredentialsOption` allows for the explicit loading of a service account key file to manage authentication."],["The latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, and this page also provides links to documentation for versions ranging down to 2.10.1."],["Examples of overriding authentication credentials are provided for various `*Client` classes, including `kms_inventory_v1::KeyDashboardServiceClient` and `kms_v1::KeyManagementServiceClient`."],["The document recommends checking the \"Best practices for managing service account keys\" guide and also the \"Authentication Components\" guide for more details."]]],[]]