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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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\u003eThis page provides documentation for various versions of the C++ Service Usage client library, ranging from version 2.11.0 up to the latest release candidate, 2.37.0-rc.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe client libraries default to using Application Default Credentials for authentication, but can be overridden using the UnifiedCredentialsOption.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is provided demonstrating how to explicitly load authentication credentials from a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eRefer to the linked guide on best practices for managing service account keys for further details on credential management.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor more information about creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects, see the Authentication Components page.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]