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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and other versions range from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries use Application Default Credentials for authentication with Google Cloud Services unless otherwise configured.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override default credentials by using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, such as loading a service account key file as demonstrated in the provided example.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eRefer to the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide for more details on managing service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor more information on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects, see the Authentication Components page.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]