Unless otherwise configured, the client libraries useApplication Default Credentialsto 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 theUnifiedCredentialsOptionThe 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::iam_admin_v1::IAMClient(
google::cloud::iam_admin_v1::MakeIAMConnection(options));
}
Follow these links to find examples for other*Clientclasses:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version of the documentation for overriding authentication in C++ is 2.37.0-rc, with multiple previous versions also available for reference, ranging from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries typically use Application Default Credentials for Google Cloud Services, but you can override this default by using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eTo override default credentials, you can load a service account key file, as demonstrated in the provided example using \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples of overriding authentication are available for several client classes, such as \u003ccode\u003eiam_admin_v1::IAMClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003eiam_credentials_v1::IAMCredentialsClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003eiam_v1::IAMPolicyClient\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003eiam_v2::PoliciesClient\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/best-practices-for-managing-service-account-keys\"\u003eBest practices for managing service account keys\u003c/a\u003e guide provides in-depth information about service account key management, and you can also find more information on creating credentials objects by consulting the \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/group__guac.html\"\u003eAuthentication Components\u003c/a\u003e documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version latestkeyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/latest/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.41.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.40.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.39.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.38.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.37.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.36.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.35.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.34.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.33.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.32.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.31.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.30.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.29.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.28.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.27.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.26.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.25.1/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.24.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.23.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.22.1/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.21.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.20.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.19.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.18.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.17.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.16.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.15.1/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.14.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.13.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.12.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.11.0/iam-override-authentication) \n\nHow to Override the Authentication Credentials\n==============================================\n\nUnless otherwise configured, the client libraries use [Application Default Credentials](https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#adc) 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](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/structgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1UnifiedCredentialsOption.html) The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file: \n\n [](std::string const& keyfile) {\n auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);\n is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples\n auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator\u003cchar\u003e(is.rdbuf()), {});\n auto options =\n google::cloud::Options{}.set\u003cgoogle::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption\u003e(\n google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));\n return google::cloud::iam_admin_v1::IAMClient(\n google::cloud::iam_admin_v1::MakeIAMConnection(options));\n }\n\nFollow these links to find examples for other `*Client` classes:\n\n- [`iam_admin_v1::IAMClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/latest/iam_admin_v1_1_1IAMClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`iam_credentials_v1::IAMCredentialsClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/latest/iam_credentials_v1_1_1IAMCredentialsClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`iam_v1::IAMPolicyClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/latest/iam_v1_1_1IAMPolicyClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`iam_v2::PoliciesClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/latest/iam_v2_1_1PoliciesClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`iam_v3::PolicyBindingsClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/latest/iam_v3_1_1PolicyBindingsClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`iam_v3::PrincipalAccessBoundaryPoliciesClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/latest/iam_v3_1_1PrincipalAccessBoundaryPoliciesClient-service-account-snippet)\n\nKeep in mind that we chose this as an example because it is relatively easy to understand. Consult the [Best practices for managing service account keys](https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/best-practices-for-managing-service-account-keys) guide for more details.\n\n###### See Also\n\n[Authentication Components](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/group__guac.html) - for more information on the factory functions to create [`google::cloud::Credentials`](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1Credentials.html) objects."]]