Techniques for implicitly configuring resources for radio link monitoring or beam failure detection. An example method generally includes identifying that RLM resources or BFD resources are configured implicitly by at least in part: obtaining TCI states, for PDDCH CORESETs, obtaining an indication that at least one of the TCI states is activated to become an active TCI state of the PDCCH CORESETs, identifying one or more CSI-RS resources configured in the at least one of active TCI states of the PDCCH CORESETs, and if the UE does not support RLM or BFD based on the CSI-RS or the one or more CSI-RS resources are AP or SP, determining a SS block for RLM or BFD that has a QCL relationship with the one or more CSI-RS resources of the at least one of active TCI states; and performing RLM or BFD based on the SS block.