What's the best way to check if the bot's account is a moderator in the channel?

Chat and IRC
4

The +o/-o mode messages seem a bit unreliable. Aside from that, there are different ways to know if the account your are connected with is mod:

  • The mentioned (not officially supported) chatters API, which you would have to pull regularly to check mod status (http://tmi.twitch.tv/group/user/<channel>/chatters).
  • You could parse the /mods command response in chat, which would be simliar to the API because you have to pull it.
  • With commands/tags capability enabled you get a USERSTATE message after every message you send, containing the user-type tag which tells you if you have mod powers (Twitch IRC documentation).

Either way, there is no way to have instant notification of mod status changing, so you should be careful with sending messages either way.