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::apphub_v1::AppHubClient(
google::cloud::apphub_v1::MakeAppHubConnection(options));
}
[[["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\u003eThis document provides guidance on overriding the default authentication credentials used by client libraries when interacting with Google Cloud Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default authentication mechanism, Application Default Credentials, can be overridden using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is provided demonstrating how to load a service account key file and use it for authentication, which uses \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents)\u003c/code\u003e within \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe document refers to the best practices for service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThis document also lists the different available versions of this library.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.30.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/latest/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.41.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.40.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.39.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.38.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.37.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.36.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.35.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.34.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.33.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.32.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.31.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.30.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.29.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.28.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.27.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.26.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.25.1/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.24.0/apphub-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/apphub/2.23.0/apphub-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::apphub_v1::AppHubClient(\n google::cloud::apphub_v1::MakeAppHubConnection(options));\n }\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."]]