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 page details how to override the default authentication credentials used by client libraries when interacting with Google Cloud Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version of the documentation is version 2.37.0-rc, with multiple older versions available, starting from 2.36.0 and continuing downwards to 2.23.0, in descending order.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe client libraries generally utilize Application Default Credentials for authentication, but users can override this by providing the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is shown on how to explicitly load a service account key file, which the user can use and reference in their own implementation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAdditional information on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects can be found in the "Authentication Components" section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.35.0keyboard_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."]]