Node reply script for twitter does not actually re

Question

This twitter script can currently tweet the selected user once they tweet, but instead of actually replying underneath the tweet, it tweets it as a standalone new tweet. How can I get it to actually reply instead of make a new tweet? I'm using Twit API: https://github.com/ttezel/twit

Here's what I have:

    console.log('The bot is starting');

var Twit = require('twit');

var config = require('./config');
var T = new Twit(config);

//Setting up a user stream
var stream = T.stream('user');

stream.on('tweet', tweetEvent);

function tweetEvent(eventMsg) {

   var replyto = eventMsg.user.screen_name;
   var text = eventMsg.text;
   var from = eventMsg.user.screen_name;

   console.log(replyto + ' '+ from);

   if (replyto =='other user's handle') {
    var newtweet = '@' + from + ' Hello!';
    tweetIt(newtweet);
   }

}

function tweetIt(txt) {

    var tweet = {
     status: txt
     }

    T.post('statuses/update', tweet, tweeted);

    function tweeted(err, data, response) {
      if (err) {
        console.log("Something went wrong!");
      } else {
        console.log("It worked!");
      }
    }
}

Answer 1

In order for a reply to show up in the tweet conversation using the Twitter API, you need the following:

// the status update or tweet ID in which we will reply
var nameID  = tweet.id_str;

Also needed is the parameter in_reply_to_status_id in the tweet status. See the updates to your code below and it should now preserve the conversation:

console.log('The bot is starting');

var Twit = require('twit');

var config = require('./config');
var T = new Twit(config);

//Setting up a user stream
var stream = T.stream('user');

stream.on('tweet', tweetEvent);

function tweetEvent(tweet) {
    var reply_to = tweet.in_reply_to_screen_name;
    var text       = tweet.text;
    var from       = tweet.user.screen_name;
    var nameID     = tweet.id_str;
    // params just to see what is going on with the tweets
    var params     = {reply_to, text, from, nameID};
    console.log(params);

    if (reply_to === 'YOUR_USERNAME') {
        var new_tweet = '@' + from + ' Hello!';
        var tweet = {
            status: new_tweet,
            in_reply_to_status_id: nameID
        }

        T.post('statuses/update', tweet, tweeted);

        function tweeted(err, data, response) {
            if (err) {
                console.log("Something went wrong!");
            } else {
                console.log("It worked!");
            }
        }
    }
}