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::memcache_v1::CloudMemcacheClient(
google::cloud::memcache_v1::MakeCloudMemcacheConnection(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\u003eThis page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud Client Libraries for C++.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, with version 2.36.0 being the most recently fully released version, and previous versions ranging from 2.35.0 all the way down to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBy utilizing the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, developers can provide their own authentication methods, such as a service account key file, rather than relying solely on Application Default Credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided code example demonstrates how to load a service account key file and use it to create a \u003ccode\u003eCloudMemcacheClient\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can find further details on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects by visiting the "Authentication Components" documentation page.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.36.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/latest/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.41.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.40.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.39.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.38.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.37.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.36.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.35.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.34.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.33.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.32.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.31.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.30.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.29.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.28.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.27.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.26.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.25.1/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.24.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.23.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.22.1/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.21.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.20.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.19.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.18.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.17.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.16.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.15.1/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.14.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.13.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.12.0/memcache-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/memcache/2.11.0/memcache-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::memcache_v1::CloudMemcacheClient(\n google::cloud::memcache_v1::MakeCloudMemcacheConnection(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."]]