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::kms_inventory_v1::KeyDashboardServiceClient(
google::cloud::kms_inventory_v1::MakeKeyDashboardServiceConnection(
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 document provides information on how to override the default authentication credentials used by client libraries when interacting with Google Cloud Services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe default authentication method is \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#adc\"\u003eApplication Default Credentials\u003c/a\u003e, but you can override this using the \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/structgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1UnifiedCredentialsOption.html\"\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version of the documentation provided is 2.37.0-rc, and links to documentation for a wide range of versions, from 2.10.1 up to the latest, are available.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe example in this content demonstrates how to explicitly load a service account key file to authenticate, and it provides links to examples for other \u003ccode\u003e*Client\u003c/code\u003e classes.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt also references the \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/best-practices-for-managing-service-account-keys\"\u003eBest practices for managing service account keys\u003c/a\u003e guide and \u003ca href=\"https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/reference/common/latest/group__guac.html\"\u003eAuthentication Components\u003c/a\u003e for more information.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.13.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/latest/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.41.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.40.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.39.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.38.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.37.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.36.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.35.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.34.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.33.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.32.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.31.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.30.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.29.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.28.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.27.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.26.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.25.1/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.24.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.23.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.22.1/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.21.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.20.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.19.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.18.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.17.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.16.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.15.1/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.14.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.13.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.12.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.11.0/kms-override-authentication)\n- [2.10.1](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.10.1/kms-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::kms_inventory_v1::KeyDashboardServiceClient(\n google::cloud::kms_inventory_v1::MakeKeyDashboardServiceConnection(\n options));\n }\n\nFollow these links to find examples for other `*Client` classes:\n\n- [`kms_inventory_v1::KeyDashboardServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.13.0/kms_inventory_v1_1_1KeyDashboardServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`kms_inventory_v1::KeyTrackingServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.13.0/kms_inventory_v1_1_1KeyTrackingServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`kms_v1::EkmServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.13.0/kms_v1_1_1EkmServiceClient-service-account-snippet)\n- [`kms_v1::KeyManagementServiceClient`](/cpp/docs/reference/kms/2.13.0/kms_v1_1_1KeyManagementServiceClient-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."]]