A measurement of the cross section for the production of top quark–antiquark pairs ( ${\mathrm {t}}\overline{{\mathrm {t}}}$ ) in association with a vector boson V (W or Z) in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ $,\text {TeV}$ is presented. The results are based on a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb$^{-1}$ recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measurement is performed in three leptonic (e and $\mu$) channels: a same-sign dilepton analysis targeting ${\mathrm {t}}\overline{{\mathrm {t}}} \mathrm {W} $ events, and trilepton and four-lepton analyses designed for ${\mathrm {t}}\overline{{\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {Z}} $ events. In the same-sign dilepton channel, the ${\mathrm {t}}\overline{{\mathrm {t}}} \mathrm {W} $ cross section is measured as $\sigma _{{\mathrm {t}}\overline{{\mathrm {t}}} \mathrm {W}} = 170 ^{+90-80},\text {(stat)} \pm 70,\text {(syst)} , \text {fb} $ , corresponding to a significance of 1.6 standard deviations over the background-only hypothesis. Combining the trilepton and four-lepton channels, a direct measurement of the ${\mathrm {t}}\overline{{\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {Z}} $ cross section, $\sigma _{{\mathrm {t}}\overline{{\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {Z}}} = 200 ^{+80-70},\text {(stat)} ^{+40-30},\text {(syst)} \mathrm{fb}^{-1} $ , is obtained with a significance of 3.1 standard deviations. The measured cross sections are compatible with standard model predictions within their experimental uncertainties. The inclusive ${\mathrm {t}}\overline{{\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {V}} $ process is observed with a significance of 3.7 standard deviations from the combination of all three leptonic channels.