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::speech_v1::AdaptationClient(
google::cloud::speech_v1::MakeAdaptationConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 document details how to override the default Application Default Credentials (ADC) for authenticating with Google Cloud Services using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and a range of previous versions are also available, including all releases from 2.36.0 to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is provided on how to explicitly load a service account key file, demonstrating how to create \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Options\u003c/code\u003e and use \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e with service account credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples for overriding credentials are provided for \u003ccode\u003espeech_v1::AdaptationClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003espeech_v1::SpeechClient\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003espeech_v2::SpeechClient\u003c/code\u003e classes.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe best practices for service account keys are linked, and the document also links to more information on the \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e factory functions.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]