Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may support channel state information (CSI) operations, such as CSI reporting. A UE may identify a change in CSI pertaining to communications with a base station or any other change in communications with a base station. The UE may transmit, to the base station and based on the change in CSI, a CSI scheduling request, which may include an indication to activate or grant resources for a CSI report transmission from the UE to the base station. The UE may receive, from the base station, a CSI report trigger based on the CSI scheduling request, and transmit, in response to receipt of the CSI report trigger, a CSI report over a physical layer uplink channel (e.g., a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)).