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::logging_v2::ConfigServiceV2Client(
google::cloud::logging_v2::MakeConfigServiceV2Connection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-08 UTC."],[[["This document provides versioned documentation for overriding authentication credentials within the Google Cloud C++ client libraries, covering versions from 2.11.0 up to the latest release candidate 2.37.0-rc."],["The client libraries typically use Application Default Credentials for authentication, but users can override this by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption."],["The example code demonstrates loading a service account key file to override default credentials, which is accomplished via the MakeServiceAccountCredentials function."],["Specific examples for overriding credentials are provided for `logging_v2::ConfigServiceV2Client`, `logging_v2::LoggingServiceV2Client`, and `logging_v2::MetricsServiceV2Client` classes."],["Users are directed to the \"Best practices for managing service account keys\" guide and the \"Authentication Components\" section for further details on handling service account credentials and creating `google::cloud::Credentials` objects."]]],[]]