How would I go about programming a "stop/start" command for a chatbot in discord.js?

Question

• The Problem- I've been working on a small project (A discord chatbot named AEIOU), and the people I'm working with tend to find that she interrupts conversations by reacting to trigger words every time. I've been looking for ways to add in a !stop and !start command so she'd only react to trigger words when active, and would only listen to commands when the trigger word activation is disabled.

The problem: I have no clue how to go about it, and when I try to code in "if (command === stop/start)", the console log displays an error "can't run commands before initialization". But, I have to put the trigger words before the commands of the bot will not work at all.

• The Code-

console.clear();

const prefix = "au>";
const Me = "865241446335512616";
const Secondary = "589180215956078612"
const Zach = "755977853518086244"
const AEIOU = "792278833877221416"


const Discord = require("discord.js");
const fs = require('fs');
const chalk = require('chalk');
const ytdl = require('ytdl-core');
const GIFEncoder = require('gifencoder')
const Canvas = require ('canvas')
const client = new Discord.Client();
const hi = require("./chatbot/hi.js")
const horny = require("./chatbot/horny.js")
const cute = require("./chatbot/cute.js")
const funny = require("./chatbot/funny.js")
const loli = require("./chatbot/loli.js")
const food = require("./chatbot/food.js")
const drink = require("./chatbot/drink.js")
const hotdog = require("./chatbot/hotdog.js")


client.commands = new Discord.Collection();


const sleep = function sleep(ms) {
    return new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
}

const getRandomInt = function getRandomInt(max) {
    return Math.floor(Math.random() * Math.floor(max));
}


var totalCommands = 0;
const commandFiles = fs.readdirSync('./commands').filter(file => file.endsWith('.js'));
async function load() {
    await console.log(chalk.green('AEIOU, Here to sing for you!'))
    await console.log('\n\n');
    await console.log('Booting up ' + chalk.cyan(__filename));
    await sleep(250);
    await console.log(chalk.bgCyan(chalk.black('[Command Loader]')), 'Loading Abilities...');
    await sleep(1000);
    for (const file of commandFiles) {
        const command = require(`./commands/${file}`);
        client.commands.set(command.name, command);
        await sleep(10);
        await console.log(chalk.bgGreen(chalk.black('[Command Loader]')), 'Got this one! ' + chalk.magentaBright(file));
        totalCommands++;
    }
    console.log(chalk.cyan(totalCommands), 'commands loaded');

    client.login("TOKEN_HERE");

}


load();

console.log(chalk.yellow(commandFiles))


client.once('ready', () => {
    console.log(chalk.blueBright('AEIOU, here to talk to you!'))
});

process.on('unhandledRejection', error => console.error('Uncaught Promise Rejection', error));
client.on("message", async message => {

    if (message.author.id == client.user.id) { return }

    var msg = [];
    var placeholder = message.content.toLowerCase().split(' ');

    placeholder.forEach(string => {
        string = string.replace(',', '');
        string = string.replace('?', '');
        string = string.replace('!', '');
        string = string.replace('"', '');
        msg.push(string);
    });

  

    if (msg.some(r => hi.messages.includes(r))) {
        return message.channel.send(hi.responses[getRandomInt(hi.responses.length)]);
    }


    if (msg.some(r => funny.messages.includes(r))) {
        return message.channel.send(funny.responses[getRandomInt(funny.responses.length)]);
    }

    if (msg.some(r => drink.messages.includes(r))) {
        return message.channel.send(drink.responses[getRandomInt(drink.responses.length)]);
    }

    if (msg.some(r => food.messages.includes(r))) {
        return message.channel.send(food.responses[getRandomInt(food.responses.length)]);
    }


    if (msg.some(r => cute.messages.includes(r))) {
        return message.channel.send(cute.responses[getRandomInt(cute.responses.length)]);
    }

    if (msg.some(r => horny.messages.includes(r))) {
        return message.channel.send(horny.responses[getRandomInt(horny.responses.length)]);
    }

    if (msg.some(r => loli.messages.includes(r))) {
        return message.channel.send(loli.responses[getRandomInt(loli.responses.length)]);
    }

    if (message.mentions.has(client.user)) {
        message.channel.send("Hi! I'm AEIOU, and I do have a prefix. It's `au>[command]`. Thanks for mentioning me!")
    }


  

    const commandBody = message.content.slice(prefix.length);
    const args = commandBody.split(' ');
    const command = args.shift().toLowerCase();

    if (!message.content.startsWith(prefix) || message.author.bot) return;



    if (command == 'credit' || command == 'credits') {
        client.commands.get('credits').execute(message, args, Discord, client);
    }

    if (command == 'help' || command == 'menu') {
        client.commands.get('help').execute(message, args, Discord, client);
    }

    if (command == 'link' || command == 'invite') {
        client.commands.get('invite').execute(message, args, Discord, client);
    }

    if (command == 'headpat' || command == 'pat') {
        client.commands.get('pet').execute(message, args, Discord, client);
    }


    if (command === "repeat") {
            const echoMessage = args.join(" ");
            message.delete();
            message.channel.send(echoMessage);
    };

    if (command == 'suggest') {
        const suggestionmsg = args.join(' ');
        if (!args.length) {
            return message.channel.send(`You didn't provide a suggestion, ${message.author}!`);
        } else {
            client.users.cache.get(me).send(message.author.tag + ' suggests: ' + suggestionmsg);
            message.channel.send("Thanks for your suggestion, and for helping with my development! I'm always looking for ways to be a better bot!");
            console.error();
        }
    }

});

I removed the actual key, and any names that aren't bots.

Answer 1

You can add a database wheres it has a key for enable/disable and you can put the condition and then put the i assumed a chat if statement inside that condition scope

for example

let db = require('quick.db');
let chatStatus = db.get('chatStatus')

// inside message event
if(chatStatus === null) chatStatus = false

if(chatStatus === true) 
{

  if (msg.some(r => hi.messages.includes(r))) {
    return message.channel.send(hi.responses[getRandomInt(hi.responses.length)]);
  }

  /*
  other chat code
  */

  if (message.mentions.has(client.user)) {
    message.channel.send("Hi! I'm AEIOU, and I do have a prefix. It's `au>[command]`. Thanks for mentioning me!")
  }

}

// code for enabling or disabling it
if (command === "status") {
  let status = db.get('chatStatus')
  if(status === null) status = false


  if(args[0] === undefined) return message.channel.send('true/false')
  
  if(args[0] == 'true') {
    db.set('chatStatus', true)
    message.channel.send(`Successfully set Chatbot to ${args[0]}`);
  }
  if(args[0] == 'false') {
    db.set('chatStatus', false)
    message.channel.send(`Successfully set Chatbot to ${args[0]}`);
  }
};

P.S: if theres a better way or remove some useless variables, whoever are you freely edit this answer