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::managedkafka_v1::ManagedKafkaClient(
google::cloud::managedkafka_v1::MakeManagedKafkaConnection(options));
}
[[["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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThe webpage provides documentation for different versions of the Managed Kafka client library, ranging from version 2.26.0 to the latest release candidate 2.37.0-rc.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy default, the client libraries authenticate using Application Default Credentials, but users can override this using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided example demonstrates how to explicitly load a service account key file to override the default authentication.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor details on how to manage service account keys, users are encouraged to consult the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe "Authentication Components" section offers more information about the factory functions used to create \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]