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_cluster_v1::CloudRedisClusterClient(
google::cloud::redis_cluster_v1::MakeCloudRedisClusterConnection(
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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis page details how to override the default authentication credentials for Google Cloud services using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e in C++.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate is version 2.37.0-rc, with the content detailing versions back to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided example demonstrates loading a service account key file to override the default credentials using \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSpecific examples for overriding authentication credentials can be found for both \u003ccode\u003eredis_cluster_v1::CloudRedisClusterClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eredis_v1::CloudRedisClient\u003c/code\u003e classes.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers are encouraged to review the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide for comprehensive details on managing service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]