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::servicecontrol_v1::QuotaControllerClient(
google::cloud::servicecontrol_v1::MakeQuotaControllerConnection(
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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThe webpage provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials in Google Cloud C++ client libraries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt highlights the use of \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e to override the default \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#adc\"\u003eApplication Default Credentials\u003c/a\u003e with custom credentials, such as loading a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest available version is \u003ccode\u003e2.37.0-rc\u003c/code\u003e, and the page shows a comprehensive list of past versions of servicecontrol, ranging from \u003ccode\u003e2.36.0\u003c/code\u003e down to \u003ccode\u003e2.11.0\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples are provided for \u003ccode\u003eQuotaControllerClient\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003eServiceControllerClient\u003c/code\u003e classes to demonstrate the overriding of credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt also recommends reviewing 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 and \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/group__guac.html\"\u003eAuthentication Components\u003c/a\u003e for additional details.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]