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::workstations_v1::WorkstationsClient(
google::cloud::workstations_v1::MakeWorkstationsConnection(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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, with numerous other versions from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0 also available for reference.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries typically use Application Default Credentials for Google Cloud Services authentication, but users can override this default.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eTo override default credentials, you can use the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, as demonstrated with an example of loading a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided example, that is considered relatively easy to understand, shows how to explicitly load a service account key file using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor more details on managing service account keys, refer to the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide, and the "Authentication Components" page for additional information on creating credential objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
