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::osconfig_agentendpoint_v1::AgentEndpointServiceClient(
google::cloud::osconfig_agentendpoint_v1::
MakeAgentEndpointServiceConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-02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 page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud C++ client libraries."],["The latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, but the current page you are on focuses on version 2.11.0."],["It is possible to override the default Application Default Credentials (ADC) by using the `UnifiedCredentialsOption`, and the page offers examples to use a service account key file."],["The documentation includes examples for `osconfig_agentendpoint_v1::AgentEndpointServiceClient` and `osconfig_v1::OsConfigServiceClient` classes."],["The page also recommends consulting the \"Best practices for managing service account keys\" guide and provides a link to further information on Authentication Components."]]],[]]