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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 when using C++ client libraries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release is version 2.37.0-rc, and the current page's context is version 2.34.0, with many earlier versions listed, as well.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e can be used to override default authentication, allowing the user to load a service account key file for authentication.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples for overriding authentication using a service account are provided for \u003ccode\u003eredis_cluster_v1::CloudRedisClusterClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eredis_v1::CloudRedisClient\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#adc\"\u003eApplication Default Credentials\u003c/a\u003e are used by default, unless otherwise specified, and users can refer to the \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/best-practices-for-managing-service-account-keys\"\u003eBest practices for managing service account keys\u003c/a\u003e guide for more details.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]