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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-07-26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 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, with version 2.36.0 being the currently displayed version, and a comprehensive list of past versions are available for reference."],["Client libraries typically use Application Default Credentials, but the `UnifiedCredentialsOption` allows overriding this using a service account key file."],["Code examples are provided demonstrating how to load a service account key file and use it to authenticate within various client classes such as `AgentEndpointServiceClient`, `OsConfigServiceClient`, and `OsConfigZonalServiceClient`."],["Best practices for managing service account keys are linked, along with a link to learn more about the creation of the `Credentials` objects, which can be found in the Authentication Components section."]]],[]]