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::serviceusage_v1::ServiceUsageClient(
google::cloud::serviceusage_v1::MakeServiceUsageConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThe webpage provides documentation for various versions of a C++ library, ranging from version 2.11.0 to the latest release candidate 2.37.0-rc.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe documentation explains how to override the default authentication credentials used by the client libraries when interacting with Google Cloud Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe example provided demonstrates how to load a service account key file using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e to authenticate with Google Cloud, and references best practices to follow when managing service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe content also directs the user to additional information about creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects through the Authentication Components section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]