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::recommender_v1::RecommenderClient(
google::cloud::recommender_v1::MakeRecommenderConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThis page documents the available versions of the Recommender service, ranging from version 2.11.0 up to the latest release candidate, 2.37.0-rc.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries use Application Default Credentials for authentication with Google Cloud Services by default, but they can be overridden.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAuthentication can be overridden by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption, as demonstrated by loading a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor details on how to manage service account keys, refer to the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe "Authentication Components" section contains more information on factory functions for creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]