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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-26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 document provides guidance on overriding default authentication credentials when interacting with Google Cloud Services."],["The latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, while the current context is set to version 2.32.0."],["The primary method for overriding default credentials involves using the `UnifiedCredentialsOption`, demonstrated with an example of loading a service account key file."],["The document contains links to examples for the `osconfig_agentendpoint_v1::AgentEndpointServiceClient`, `osconfig_v1::OsConfigServiceClient`, and `osconfig_v1::OsConfigZonalServiceClient` client classes."],["Users should refer to the \"Best practices for managing service account keys\" guide for additional information on security and managing credentials."]]],[]]