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::run_v2::RevisionsClient(
google::cloud::run_v2::MakeRevisionsConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 Application Default Credentials (ADC) for authenticating with Google Cloud Services when using C++ client libraries, by using the UnifiedCredentialsOption.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version, 2.37.0-rc, and a list of previous versions down to 2.11.0, each with links to their respective documentation on how to override authentication are provided.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is given to explain how to use \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e to load a service account key file explicitly for authentication purposes, with minimal error handling.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe page provides links for examples of overriding authentication with \u003ccode\u003erun_v2::RevisionsClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003erun_v2::ServicesClient\u003c/code\u003e classes specifically.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eA best practices link is provided to help the user for managing service account keys, as well as a link for further information on authentication components.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]