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::scheduler_v1::CloudSchedulerClient(
google::cloud::scheduler_v1::MakeCloudSchedulerConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThis page provides documentation for overriding authentication credentials when using the Google Cloud C++ client libraries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, with documentation available for versions ranging from 2.11.0 up to the latest.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy default, the client libraries utilize Application Default Credentials, but users can override this by using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is provided to illustrate how to explicitly load a service account key file, allowing for custom authentication.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe page also directs users to additional resources for best practices in managing service account keys and more information about authentication components.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]