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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud client libraries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe most current version available is 2.37.0-rc, with a comprehensive list of previous versions from 2.36.0 down to 2.10.1 accessible for reference.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can override the default credentials by utilizing the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, demonstrated with an example of loading a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe page includes links to specific examples for several \u003ccode\u003e*Client\u003c/code\u003e classes, including \u003ccode\u003ekms_inventory_v1::KeyDashboardServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003ekms_v1::KeyManagementServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt is highly recommended to review the best practices for service account key management guide for more information.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]