Whilst contemporary ideas of feedback provide multiple insights into how feedback should be processed and enacted by students in a recipient role, little attention has been paid to understand what it takes for students to provide effective feedback to others. This conceptual paper draws on literature from peer feedback and feedback literacy to explore the capacities that are required to provide effective feedback to a peer. Using synthesis by configuration, a comprehensive classification of what students need to do is proposed: 1) recognise the purpose of providing feedback, 2) craft and deliver a suitable feedback message, 3) use evaluative judgement and 4) manage the socio-emotional environment. We argue that students should be supported to develop these capacities to produce good quality feedback for their peers that have a positive learning impact on both members of the provider/recipient dyad, and that a focus on these capacities can have implications for how feedback provision is conceptualised as a necessary component of feedback literacy.