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::netapp_v1::NetAppClient(
google::cloud::netapp_v1::MakeNetAppConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and a list of all versions from 2.36.0 down to 2.16.0 are available for viewing, including 2.29.0 which is referenced in the page content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries typically authenticate using Application Default Credentials, but users can override this default when necessary, using the UnifiedCredentialsOption.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override default authentication by loading a service account key file, as demonstrated in the provided code example.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eRefer to the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide for detailed information about managing service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor more information about creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects, see the "Authentication Components" documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]