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::redis_v1::CloudRedisClient(
google::cloud::redis_v1::MakeCloudRedisConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThe latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, with numerous other versions, down to 2.11.0, also listed for reference.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy default, client libraries utilize Application Default Credentials for authenticating with Google Cloud Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override the default authentication by using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, which allows for the explicit loading of a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided code demonstrates how to load a service account key file, offering a clear example of overriding authentication credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor managing service account keys and more information on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e, refer to the linked "Best practices" and "Authentication Components" guides.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]