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::sql_v1::SqlBackupRunsServiceClient(
google::cloud::sql_v1::MakeSqlBackupRunsServiceConnectionRest(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 interacting with Google Cloud SQL services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, and the current version's documentation is for version 2.22.1, with other available versions ranging from 2.11.0 up to the latest.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override the default Application Default Credentials by providing the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e and can find examples using service accounts for various \u003ccode\u003e*Client\u003c/code\u003e classes related to Cloud SQL.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe guide uses loading a service account key file as an example of overriding credentials, but it also recommends consulting the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe documentation offers further reading on authentication components that can be found at the "Authentication Components" link provided in the See Also section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
