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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-26 UTC."],[[["This webpage provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials in Google Cloud C++ client libraries for `osconfig`."],["The latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and the content includes version information and links ranging from 2.37.0-rc to 2.11.0 for the `osconfig` documentation."],["Users can override default credentials by using `UnifiedCredentialsOption`, such as loading a service account key file as shown in the provided example code."],["Examples are provided for other Client classes, such as `osconfig_agentendpoint_v1::AgentEndpointServiceClient`, `osconfig_v1::OsConfigServiceClient`, and `osconfig_v1::OsConfigZonalServiceClient`, with links to code snippets for each."],["The page also links to the \"Best practices for managing service account keys\" guide and the \"Authentication Components\" for a more detailed view on credential management."]]],[]]