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::sql_v1::SqlAvailableDatabaseVersionsServiceClient(
google::cloud::sql_v1::
MakeSqlAvailableDatabaseVersionsServiceConnectionRest(options));
}
Follow these links to find examples for other*Clientclasses:
[[["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 provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when interacting with Google Cloud Services using the C++ client libraries.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default method is to use \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#adc\"\u003eApplication Default Credentials\u003c/a\u003e, but you can override this with the \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/structgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1UnifiedCredentialsOption.html\"\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/a\u003e to specify alternate credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAn example is provided showing how to explicitly load authentication from a service account key file, using \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eLinks are provided for service account authentication examples for various \u003ccode\u003eSql_v1\u003c/code\u003e client classes, for example, \u003ca href=\"/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlAvailableDatabaseVersionsServiceClient-service-account-snippet\"\u003e\u003ccode\u003esql_v1::SqlAvailableDatabaseVersionsServiceClient\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version of the API reference is 2.37.0-rc, with a history of releases going back to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.35.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/latest/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.41.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.40.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.39.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.38.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.37.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.36.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.34.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.33.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.32.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.31.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.30.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.29.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.28.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.27.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.26.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.25.1/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.24.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.23.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.22.1/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.21.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.20.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.19.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.18.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.17.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.16.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.15.1/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.14.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.13.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.12.0/sql-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.11.0/sql-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::sql_v1::SqlAvailableDatabaseVersionsServiceClient(\n google::cloud::sql_v1::\n MakeSqlAvailableDatabaseVersionsServiceConnectionRest(options));\n }\n\nFollow these links to find examples for other `*Client` classes:\n\n- [`sql_v1::SqlAvailableDatabaseVersionsServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlAvailableDatabaseVersionsServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlBackupRunsServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlBackupRunsServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlConnectServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlConnectServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlDatabasesServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlDatabasesServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlEventsServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlEventsServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlFlagsServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlFlagsServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlIamPoliciesServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlIamPoliciesServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlInstanceNamesServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlInstanceNamesServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlInstancesServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlInstancesServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlOperationsServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlOperationsServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlRegionsServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlRegionsServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlSslCertsServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlSslCertsServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlTiersServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlTiersServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`sql_v1::SqlUsersServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/sql/2.35.0/sql_v1_1_1SqlUsersServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\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."]]