Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. For example, the described techniques provide for configuring sidelink beam failure detection reference signals for determining beam failures on a sidelink between a first sidelink user equipment (UE) and a second sidelink UE. The first UE may determine a first set of sidelink beam failure detection reference signals to transmit to the second UE and a second set of sidelink beam failure detection reference signals to receive from the second UE. The first UE may transmit the first set to the second UE using a set of sidelink transmit beams. The first UE may further monitor for the determined second set using a set of sidelink receive beams. Based on the first and second set of sidelink beam failure detection reference signals, the first and second UE may communicate over the sidelink.