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::datastream_v1::DatastreamClient(
google::cloud::datastream_v1::MakeDatastreamConnection(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\u003eThe latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, with multiple previous versions ranging down to 2.11.0 available.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe client libraries typically use Application Default Credentials (ADC) for authentication with Google Cloud Services, but this can be overridden.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override the default credentials by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption, such as loading a service account key file as demonstrated in the example code.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e can be used to set custom authentication, for instance utilizing a \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eRefer to the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide for detailed information on handling service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.26.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/latest/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.41.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.40.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.39.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.38.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.37.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.36.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.35.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.34.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.33.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.32.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.31.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.30.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.29.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.28.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.27.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.26.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.25.1/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.24.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.23.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.22.1/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.21.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.20.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.19.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.18.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.17.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.16.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.15.1/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.14.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.13.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.12.0/datastream-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/datastream/2.11.0/datastream-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::datastream_v1::DatastreamClient(\n google::cloud::datastream_v1::MakeDatastreamConnection(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."]]