diff --git a/src/community/ogcapi/ogcapi-core/src/main/java/org/geoserver/api/APIRequestInfo.java b/src/community/ogcapi/ogcapi-core/src/main/java/org/geoserver/api/APIRequestInfo.java
index f83ea0c36b4..58caf5dee00 100644
--- a/src/community/ogcapi/ogcapi-core/src/main/java/org/geoserver/api/APIRequestInfo.java
+++ b/src/community/ogcapi/ogcapi-core/src/main/java/org/geoserver/api/APIRequestInfo.java
@@ -76,7 +76,10 @@ String buildURI(String base, String path) {
         return ResponseUtils.buildURL(baseURL, path, null, URLMangler.URLType.SERVICE);
     }
 
-    /** Returns the APIRequestInfo from the current {@link RequestContextHolder} */
+    /**
+     * Returns the APIRequestInfo from the current {@link RequestContextHolder}, or {@code null}
+     * indicating there's no OGC API request bound to the calling thread
+     */
     public static APIRequestInfo get() {
         RequestAttributes requestAttributes = RequestContextHolder.getRequestAttributes();
         if (requestAttributes == null) return null;
diff --git a/src/community/ogcapi/ogcapi-features/src/main/java/org/geoserver/api/features/RFCGeoJSONFeaturesResponse.java b/src/community/ogcapi/ogcapi-features/src/main/java/org/geoserver/api/features/RFCGeoJSONFeaturesResponse.java
index d3d06562a1f..5a83f38ac16 100644
--- a/src/community/ogcapi/ogcapi-features/src/main/java/org/geoserver/api/features/RFCGeoJSONFeaturesResponse.java
+++ b/src/community/ogcapi/ogcapi-features/src/main/java/org/geoserver/api/features/RFCGeoJSONFeaturesResponse.java
@@ -111,6 +111,10 @@ private void writeLinks(
             GeoJSONBuilder jw,
             String featureId) {
         APIRequestInfo requestInfo = APIRequestInfo.get();
+        if (null == requestInfo) {
+            // request comes from WFS, not from ogcapi
+            return;
+        }
         GetFeatureRequest request = GetFeatureRequest.adapt(operation.getParameters()[0]);
         FeatureTypeInfo featureType = getFeatureType(request);
         String baseUrl = request.getBaseUrl();