Error when following installation instructions

I get the following error when running either npm install or yarn on a fresh clone of the repository.

$ cd serverless && npm install
npm ERR! git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1: fatal: ambiguous argument 'serverless_v1': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
npm ERR! git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1: Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
npm ERR! git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1: 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'
npm ERR! git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1: 
npm ERR! Darwin 14.0.0
npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.32/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v6.4.0
npm ERR! npm  v3.10.3
npm ERR! code 128

npm ERR! Command failed: git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1
npm ERR! fatal: ambiguous argument 'serverless_v1': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
npm ERR! Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
npm ERR! 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at:
npm ERR!     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /Users/benhirsch/Github/1000minutes/serverless/npm-debug.log
error Command failed with exit code 1.
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/install for documentation about this command.

And then these are the offending lines in the log:

769 silly mapToRegistry uri https://registry.yarnpkg.com/serverless-dynamodb-local
770 verbose addNameVersion registry:https://registry.yarnpkg.com/serverless-dynamodb-local not in flight; fetching
771 verbose get https://registry.yarnpkg.com/serverless-dynamodb-local not expired, no request
772 silly cache afterAdd serverless-dynamodb-local@0.2.17
773 verbose afterAdd /Users/benhirsch/.npm/serverless-dynamodb-local/0.2.17/package/package.json not in flight; writing
774 verbose correctMkdir /Users/benhirsch/.npm correctMkdir not in flight; initializing
775 verbose afterAdd /Users/benhirsch/.npm/serverless-dynamodb-local/0.2.17/package/package.json written
776 verbose updateRemote git fetch -a origin (https://github.com/dherault/serverless-offline.git/)
777 verbose correctMkdir /Users/benhirsch/.npm/_git-remotes correctMkdir not in flight; initializing
778 verbose setPermissions git+https://github.com/dherault/serverless-offline.git/#serverless_v1 set permissions on /Users/benhirsch/.npm/_git-remotes/git-https-github-com-dherault-serverless-offline-git-serverless-v1-6b02a695
779 verbose resolveHead git+https://github.com/dherault/serverless-offline.git/#serverless_v1 original treeish: serverless_v1
780 info git [ 'rev-list', '-n1', 'serverless_v1' ]
781 error git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1: fatal: ambiguous argument 'serverless_v1': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
781 error git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1: Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
781 error git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1: 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData Error: Command failed: git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData fatal: ambiguous argument 'serverless_v1': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:206:12)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:191:7)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:852:16)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at Socket.<anonymous> (internal/child_process.js:323:11)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at emitOne (events.js:96:13)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at Socket.emit (events.js:188:7)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at Pipe._handle.close [as _onclose] (net.js:492:12)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData  error for serverless-offline@git+https://github.com/dherault/serverless-offline.git/#serverless_v1 { Error: Command failed: git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData fatal: ambiguous argument 'serverless_v1': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:206:12)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:191:7)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:852:16)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at Socket.<anonymous> (internal/child_process.js:323:11)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at emitOne (events.js:96:13)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at Socket.emit (events.js:188:7)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData     at Pipe._handle.close [as _onclose] (net.js:492:12)
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData   killed: false,
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData   code: 128,
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData   signal: null,
782 silly fetchPackageMetaData   cmd: 'git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1' }
783 silly rollbackFailedOptional Starting
784 silly rollbackFailedOptional Finishing
785 silly runTopLevelLifecycles Starting
786 silly runTopLevelLifecycles Finishing
787 silly install printInstalled
788 verbose stack Error: Command failed: git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1
788 verbose stack fatal: ambiguous argument 'serverless_v1': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
788 verbose stack Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
788 verbose stack 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'
788 verbose stack
788 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:206:12)
788 verbose stack     at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
788 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:191:7)
788 verbose stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:852:16)
788 verbose stack     at Socket.<anonymous> (internal/child_process.js:323:11)
788 verbose stack     at emitOne (events.js:96:13)
788 verbose stack     at Socket.emit (events.js:188:7)
788 verbose stack     at Pipe._handle.close [as _onclose] (net.js:492:12)
789 verbose cwd /Users/benhirsch/Github/1000minutes/serverless
790 error Darwin 14.0.0
791 error argv "/usr/local/Cellar/node/0.10.32/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install"
792 error node v6.4.0
793 error npm  v3.10.3
794 error code 128
795 error Command failed: git rev-list -n1 serverless_v1
795 error fatal: ambiguous argument 'serverless_v1': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.
795 error Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
795 error 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'
796 error If you need help, you may report this error at:
796 error     <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
797 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

Can anybody tell me what exactly is going wrong?

[AshanFernando]

At the moment it is an overhead to include an environmental variable where you need to update serverless.yml and gulpfile(To support gulp deploy-api). Also when there are many environmental variables it makes it even problematic to append them as parameters. So I think its better to just use the dotenv library and .env file to support environmental variables for Lambda-NodeJS

@bhirsch42 Remember to add the following code as early as possible in your lambda code require('dotenv').config();

[mypalmike]

Ran into the same issue here. I was able to get past this by modifying serverless-react-boilerplate/serverless/package.json. I changed the line:

"serverless-offline": "git+https://github.com/dherault/serverless-offline.git/#serverless_v1",

to:

"serverless-offline": "git+https://github.com/dherault/serverless-offline.git",