diff --git a/tap_rest_api_msdk/pagination.py b/tap_rest_api_msdk/pagination.py
index 0f51660..c6e3fa4 100644
--- a/tap_rest_api_msdk/pagination.py
+++ b/tap_rest_api_msdk/pagination.py
@@ -168,23 +168,18 @@ def get_next_url(self, response: requests.Response) -> Optional[Any]:
         if not response.links.get("next", {}).get("url"):
             return None
 
-        resp_json = response.json()
-        if isinstance(resp_json, list):
-            results = resp_json
-        else:
-            results = resp_json.get("items")
-
-        # Exit early if the response has no items. ? Maybe duplicative the "next" link
-        # check.
-        if not results:
-            return None
-
         # Unfortunately endpoints such as /starred, /stargazers, /events and /pulls do
         # not support the "since" parameter out of the box. So we use a workaround here
         # to exit early. For such streams, we sort by descending dates (most recent
         # first), and paginate "back in time" until we reach records before our
         # "fake_since" parameter.
         if self.replication_key and self.use_fake_since_parameter:
+            resp_json = response.json()
+            if isinstance(resp_json, list):
+                results = resp_json
+            else:
+                results = resp_json.get("items")
+
             request_parameters = parse_qs(str(urlparse(response.request.url).query))
             # parse_qs interprets "+" as a space, revert this to keep an aware datetime
             try:
@@ -217,10 +212,5 @@ def get_next_url(self, response: requests.Response) -> Optional[Any]:
             ):
                 return None
 
-        # Use header links returned by the API to return the query parameters.
-        parsed_url = urlparse(response.links["next"]["url"])
-
-        if parsed_url.query:
-            return parsed_url.query
-
-        return None
+        # Use header links returned by the API to return the next URL.
+        return response.links["next"]["url"]
diff --git a/tap_rest_api_msdk/streams.py b/tap_rest_api_msdk/streams.py
index d54dfdb..859193d 100644
--- a/tap_rest_api_msdk/streams.py
+++ b/tap_rest_api_msdk/streams.py
@@ -473,7 +473,10 @@ def _get_url_params_header_link(
             limit_per_page_param = "per_page"
         params[limit_per_page_param] = pagination_page_size
         if next_page_token:
-            request_parameters = parse_qs(str(next_page_token))
+            # next_page_token is a ParseResult object from BaseHATEOASPaginator
+            # Extract the query string properly
+            query_string = next_page_token.query if hasattr(next_page_token, 'query') else str(next_page_token)
+            request_parameters = parse_qs(query_string)
             for k, v in request_parameters.items():
                 params[k] = v
 
diff --git a/tests/test_streams.py b/tests/test_streams.py
index bc2f94b..e2e98d4 100644
--- a/tests/test_streams.py
+++ b/tests/test_streams.py
@@ -133,3 +133,82 @@ def second_matcher(request):
         json_resp()["records"][0],
         json_resp()["records"][1],
     ]
+
+
+def test_header_link_pagination_with_non_items_key(requests_mock):
+    """Test that header link pagination works with response keys other than 'items'.
+    
+    This validates the fix for Bug #1 where RestAPIHeaderLinkPaginator would
+    exit early if the response didn't contain an 'items' key.
+    """
+    cfg = config({
+        "pagination_request_style": "restapi_header_link_paginator",
+        "pagination_response_style": "header_link",
+        "streams": [
+            {
+                "name": "test_stream",
+                "path": "/test",
+                "primary_keys": ["id"],
+                "records_path": "$.data[*]",  # Using 'data' instead of 'items'
+            }
+        ],
+    })
+    
+    # First page with Link header
+    requests_mock.get(
+        "https://example.com/test",
+        headers={"Link": '<https://example.com/test?page=2>; rel="next"'},
+        json={"data": [{"id": 1}, {"id": 2}]},
+    )
+    
+    # Second page without Link header
+    requests_mock.get(
+        "https://example.com/test?page=2",
+        json={"data": [{"id": 3}]},
+    )
+
+    stream0 = TapRestApiMsdk(config=cfg, parse_env_config=True).discover_streams()[0]
+    records = list(stream0.get_records({}))
+
+    assert len(records) == 3
+    assert records[0]["id"] == 1
+    assert records[2]["id"] == 3
+
+
+def test_header_link_pagination_backward_compatibility(requests_mock):
+    """Test that header link pagination still works with 'items' key (backward compatibility).
+    
+    This ensures the fix doesn't break existing implementations.
+    """
+    cfg = config({
+        "pagination_request_style": "restapi_header_link_paginator",
+        "pagination_response_style": "header_link",
+        "streams": [
+            {
+                "name": "test_stream",
+                "path": "/test",
+                "primary_keys": ["id"],
+                "records_path": "$.items[*]",
+            }
+        ],
+    })
+    
+    # First page with Link header
+    requests_mock.get(
+        "https://example.com/test",
+        headers={"Link": '<https://example.com/test?page=2>; rel="next"'},
+        json={"items": [{"id": 1}, {"id": 2}]},
+    )
+    
+    # Second page without Link header
+    requests_mock.get(
+        "https://example.com/test?page=2",
+        json={"items": [{"id": 3}]},
+    )
+
+    stream0 = TapRestApiMsdk(config=cfg, parse_env_config=True).discover_streams()[0]
+    records = list(stream0.get_records({}))
+
+    assert len(records) == 3
+    assert records[0]["id"] == 1
+    assert records[2]["id"] == 3