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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 webpage provides documentation for various versions of the C++ Recommender client library, ranging from version 2.11.0 to the latest release candidate 2.37.0-rc.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default authentication method for the client libraries is Application Default Credentials, but users can override this by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can override authentication by loading a service account key file, as demonstrated in the example code provided using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eMakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided documentation offers a detailed explanation of how to manage service account keys, which include best practices that can be consulted for more information.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003eAuthentication Components\u003c/code\u003e link provides additional information for the creation of \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1Credentials.html\"\u003e\u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/a\u003e objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]