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::workflows_executions_v1::ExecutionsClient(
google::cloud::workflows_executions_v1::MakeExecutionsConnection(
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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 provides version-specific information and examples for overriding default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud client libraries in C++.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version documented is \u003ccode\u003e2.37.0-rc\u003c/code\u003e, and the document details the change log all the way back to version \u003ccode\u003e2.11.0\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default method of authentication is using Application Default Credentials, however it is possible to override this with \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example shows how to load a service account key file using \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eLinks to examples are provided for \u003ccode\u003eworkflows_executions_v1::ExecutionsClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eworkflows_v1::WorkflowsClient\u003c/code\u003e to illustrate overriding authentication.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]