Abstract Nearby type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), such as SN 2017cbv, are useful events to address the question of what the elusive progenitor systems of the explosions are. Hosseinzadeh et al. suggested that the early blue excess of the light curve of SN 2017cbv could be due to the supernova ejecta interacting with a non-degenerate companion star. Some SN Ia progenitor models suggest the existence of circumstellar (CS) environments in which strong outflows create low-density cavities of different radii. Matter deposited at the edges of the cavities should be at distances at which photoionization due to early ultraviolet (UV) radiation of SNe Ia causes detectable changes to the observable Na i D and Ca ii H&K absorption lines. To study possible narrow absorption lines from such material, we obtained a time series of high-resolution spectra of SN 2017cbv at phases between −14.8 and +83 days with respect to B-band maximum, covering the time at which photoionization is predicted to occur. Both narrow Na i D and Ca ii H&K are detected in all spectra, with no measurable changes between the epochs. We use photoionization models to rule out the presence of Na i and Ca ii gas clouds along the line of sight of SN 2017cbv between ∼8 × 1016–2 × 1019 cm and ∼1015–1017 cm, respectively. Assuming typical abundances, the mass of a homogeneous spherical CS gas shell with radius R must be limited to . The bounds point to progenitor models that deposit little gas in their CS environment.