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::tasks_v2::CloudTasksClient(
google::cloud::tasks_v2::MakeCloudTasksConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 overriding default authentication credentials in the context of Google Cloud C++ client libraries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version available for the documentation is version 2.37.0-rc, with a full range of versions available down to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can override the default authentication using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, as demonstrated in the provided C++ example.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe best practices guide for managing service account keys should be consulted for a secure implementation, and there is also a link for more information on authentication components.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]