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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThis page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud C++ client libraries for Service Control.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate is version 2.37.0-rc, with documentation provided for versions spanning from 2.11.0 up to the latest.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override default credentials by providing the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, demonstrated using a service account key file as an example.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples are available for various client classes, including \u003ccode\u003eQuotaControllerClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eServiceControllerClient\u003c/code\u003e in servicecontrol_v1, and \u003ccode\u003eServiceControllerClient\u003c/code\u003e in servicecontrol_v2.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor best practices on service account key management, consult the dedicated Google Cloud guide linked in the documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]