diff --git a/provider_openai_test.go b/provider_openai_test.go
index 93a2978..58d078d 100644
--- a/provider_openai_test.go
+++ b/provider_openai_test.go
@@ -708,6 +708,24 @@ func TestBuildAdapters(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	})
 
+	t.Run("bad: metadataPath without a leading slash is a constructor error (review fix)", func(t *testing.T) {
+		cfg := &Config{Providers: map[string]*ProviderConfig{
+			"lmstudio": {Type: "openai", MetadataPath: "api/v0/models"},
+		}}
+		if _, err := buildAdapters(cfg); err == nil {
+			t.Error("want an error for a metadataPath missing its leading slash")
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("good: empty metadataPath is valid (feature disabled)", func(t *testing.T) {
+		cfg := &Config{Providers: map[string]*ProviderConfig{
+			"p1": {Type: "openai", APIKey: "sk-test"},
+		}}
+		if _, err := buildAdapters(cfg); err != nil {
+			t.Errorf("buildAdapters: %v, want no error for an empty metadataPath", err)
+		}
+	})
+
 	t.Run("good: explicit base URL trailing slash trimmed", func(t *testing.T) {
 		cfg := &Config{Providers: map[string]*ProviderConfig{
 			"p1": {Type: "openai", BaseURL: "https://custom.example.com/", APIKey: "sk-test"},
diff --git a/providers.go b/providers.go
index fbce066..76b7485 100644
--- a/providers.go
+++ b/providers.go
@@ -367,6 +367,25 @@ func validateConfigName(kind, name string) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// validateMetadataPath rejects a non-empty ProviderConfig.MetadataPath
+// (feature v0.23) that does not start with "/" (review fix, folded
+// minor) — fetchModelMetadata (provider_openai.go) builds its request
+// URL by plain string concatenation, a.baseURL+a.metadataPath; a value
+// missing the leading slash would silently glue onto baseURL's own path
+// with no separator (e.g. "http://host:1234api/v0/models"), a malformed
+// URL that only surfaces as a confusing runtime fetch failure instead of
+// a clear, named construction error. Empty (the default, metadata
+// capture disabled) is always valid.
+func validateMetadataPath(providerName, metadataPath string) error {
+	if metadataPath == "" {
+		return nil
+	}
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(metadataPath, "/") {
+		return fmt.Errorf("llmgateway: provider %q: metadataPath %q must start with \"/\"", providerName, metadataPath)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // buildAdapters resolves cfg.Providers into a map of providerAdapter keyed
 // by provider name. Every provider name is validated (validateConfigName)
 // and every ProviderConfig value must be non-nil before anything else runs,
@@ -413,6 +432,10 @@ func buildAdapters(cfg *Config) (map[string]providerAdapter, error) {
 			base = defaultBaseURLByType[pc.Type]
 		}
 
+		if err := validateMetadataPath(name, pc.MetadataPath); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+
 		switch pc.Type {
 		case providerTypeOpenAI:
 			a := newOpenAIAdapter(name, base, apiKey)