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::profiler_v2::ProfilerServiceClient(
google::cloud::profiler_v2::MakeProfilerServiceConnection(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 available is 2.37.0-rc, followed by a list of stable versions down to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy default, the client libraries utilize Application Default Credentials for authentication with Google Cloud Services, but it is possible to override this default.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can override the default authentication by supplying the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, which allows for custom credential configurations, including loading a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided code example demonstrates how to load credentials from a service account key file using \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eMakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e, but users should refer to the best practices guide for secure key management.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAdditional details regarding the creation of \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects can be found within the Authentication Components documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.13.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/latest/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.41.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.40.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.39.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.38.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.37.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.36.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.35.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.34.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.33.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.32.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.31.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.30.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.29.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.28.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.27.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.26.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.25.1/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.24.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.23.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.22.1/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.21.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.20.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.19.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.18.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.17.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.16.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.15.1/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.14.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.13.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.12.0/profiler-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/profiler/2.11.0/profiler-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::profiler_v2::ProfilerServiceClient(\n google::cloud::profiler_v2::MakeProfilerServiceConnection(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."]]