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 version available is 2.37.0-rc, with numerous other versions from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0 also being accessible.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries use Application Default Credentials for authentication with Google Cloud Services by default.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override default authentication by using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, such as loading a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided example demonstrates loading a service account key file for overriding authentication, while referring to best practices for managing these keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eMore information regarding factory functions for \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects can be found in Authentication Components.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.31.0keyboard_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."]]