Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a first user equipment (UE) may encapsulate, into a link layer sidelink management message, upper layer signaling for managing a direct communication connection with a second UE. The first UE may transmit, to the second UE, the link layer sidelink management message including the upper layer signaling. The second UE may selectively transmit, to the first UE, a link layer sidelink response message based at least in part on a content of the upper layer signaling in the link layer sidelink management message. Numerous other aspects are provided.