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::iam_admin_v1::IAMClient(
google::cloud::iam_admin_v1::MakeIAMConnection(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 details how to override the default Application Default Credentials (ADC) for authenticating with Google Cloud Services, which is done by providing a \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe content provides a code example demonstrating how to explicitly load a service account key file using \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003eMakeServiceAccountCredentials\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eLinks are provided to specific examples for different \u003ccode\u003e*Client\u003c/code\u003e classes, including \u003ccode\u003eiam_admin_v1::IAMClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003eiam_credentials_v1::IAMCredentialsClient\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003eiam_v1::IAMPolicyClient\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003eiam_v2::PoliciesClient\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe page includes a reference to best practices for managing service account keys, as well as a link to more information on authentication components.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThis page lists the different version releases of the CPP documentation, with the latest release being 2.37.0-rc, all the way back to 2.11.0, and links for each to documentation about overriding authentication.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.17.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/latest/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.41.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.40.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.39.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.38.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.37.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.36.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.35.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.34.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.33.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.32.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.31.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.30.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.29.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.28.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.27.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.26.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.25.1/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.24.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.23.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.22.1/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.21.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.20.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.19.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.18.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.17.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.16.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.15.1/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.14.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.13.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.12.0/iam-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.11.0/iam-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::iam_admin_v1::IAMClient(\n google::cloud::iam_admin_v1::MakeIAMConnection(options));\n }\n\nFollow these links to find examples for other `*Client` classes:\n\n- [`iam_admin_v1::IAMClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.17.0/iam_admin_v1_1_1IAMClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`iam_credentials_v1::IAMCredentialsClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.17.0/iam_credentials_v1_1_1IAMCredentialsClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`iam_v1::IAMPolicyClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.17.0/iam_v1_1_1IAMPolicyClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`iam_v2::PoliciesClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/iam/2.17.0/iam_v2_1_1PoliciesClient-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."]]